The Pianist
by lizardwriter
Summary: AU ish. Set after 3x04. Naomi plays the piano to work some things out and Emily stumbles across her. Pairing: Naomily Please Read and REVIEW! Disclaimer: I don't own Skins or any of the characters!
1. Chapter 1

Naomi had been longing for a chance to play the piano ever since Pandora's party. It had been over a week now and she'd just been getting more and more upset over the events that had happened there and more so her reactions to those events. Playing piano was the one thing that soothed her, that calmed her and helped her work things out.

She'd started playing at age four when her mum had actually had a piano in the house before she'd decided that communal living and minimalism were the way to go. She'd started playing scales (not that she'd known that was what they were at the time) and begged her mum for weeks to let her take lessons. Her mum had finally remembered to ask the woman who'd lived down the street at the time if she'd be willing to give Naomi lessons, and she'd started going there twice a week and practicing daily at home. She had loved it from the start.

Now her fingers were practically itching to play, hardly able to sit still in class, drumming along the desk, picking out the fingering to one of Bach's Minuets. The only piano she had access to these days was in the music room at college, but it had been occupied every time she'd tried to use it. She felt so frustrated that she was ready to burst.

The puppy dog eyes that Emily kept shooting in her direction weren't helping at all. She'd told the girl that it was only the drugs. She'd warned her. It couldn't be anything else. It just fucking couldn't. But Emily kept giving her helpful little waves and shy little smiles that fucking definitely didn't stir butterflies in her stomach. Just like the kiss hadn't done that either. Or the one later on the bouncy castle (though that had been more of a snog if she was honest with herself). Still it had just been the drugs.

She tapped a little harder on her desk, willing the seconds of her class to tick by a little faster. She made the mistake of glancing to her left and caught Emily staring at her. The girl blushed and smiled, eyes looking back at Naomi full of expectations. Expectations that Naomi fucking knew she couldn't live up to.

_No_, she thought firmly, smacking angrily at her desk, causing a few curious glances from her classmates that she promptly ignored. She fucking didn't want to live up to Emily's expectations! Even if she could, she didn't want to...She didn't want _that_! She wasn't gay. Emily was. She felt her heart beating a little harder, matching the taps of her fingers on the desk.

The bell rang and Naomi gathered her books and raced out of the classroom, wanting to avoid actually having to talk to Emily at all costs. She navigated the packed hallways, picking her way towards the music room.

She practically sighed in relief when she saw that the room was empty. She walked in, dropping her bag carelessly on the floor with a thud as she made a beeline for the piano.

Almost as soon as she sat down on the piano bench and centred herself in front of middle C. She felt herself relaxing. She contemplated what to play for a moment as her hands hovered above the keys. She opted to start with something easy, mindless as it were. Something that she'd been playing since she was seven so the motor memory was so imprinted in her fingers that she could just let it flow and focus on other things.

As her fingers played out the first few notes of _Für Elise_, she felt the tension in her back start to unwind. She let her mind wonder as her fingers danced. She didn't care if she was playing a tempo. In fact, she was well aware that she was playing too fast. She wasn't concerned if she was playing pianissimo or fortissimo or anywhere in between. She was playing her emotions and her frustrations out for now.

Everything had gotten so fucked up. Ever since Emily'd kissed her in middle school. No, before that even. As soon as Emily and Katie had entered her life way back when, things had started to go to shit.

Why her? Why had Emily decided to like her? Why had Emily kissed _her_? More than once now, too, she reminded herself as she pounded a little harder on the keys. Weren't things shit enough with Katie spreading rumours about her being gay and most of the population of the college being complete twats? Why couldn't Emily fucking leave her alone so that she wouldn't have to deal with the strange way that her lips seemed to think they enjoy kissing her?

The final chord of the song sang out and lingered in the air as Naomi decided what to play next. She felt like more of a challenge now that she was warmed up. Something that she could focus on more, but still something that would give her a chance to expel her anger and frustration. She settled on Chopin's _Etude in C Minor Op. 10 No. 12_, letting her fingers race over the keyboard. She couldn't play it completely a tempo because it was so incredibly fast while being rather complex as well, but she liked playing songs that she could push herself in, songs that made her fingers rush. Her fingers liked to dance quickly over the ivories. The minor key was soothing to her ear and fuelled her darker mood. The pounding chords in the right hand helped her get out her frustration. She let her fingers settle into the longer song, focusing from time to time, especially on her faster moving left hand. She couldn't help her mind wondering back to her problems though.

The biggest issue was that she really had enjoyed kissing Emily. It had felt good physically. There was no denying that her body had responded. Fucking stupid body, betraying her like that. Sure the drugs had contributed, but nobody else's touch had lit her body on fire quite so much that night.

Naomi sighed in aggravation as her fingers tripped over a key and struck the wrong note. She started a little further back and tried again. Her fingers flowed seamlessly this time. She breathed a little easier.

And why couldn't she stop thinking about the kiss? About Emily? It was ridiculous. It shouldn't mean anything! Except it was their second kiss, really. And it had taken her months before she'd stopped thinking about that first kiss every day. She hadn't wanted to think about what that might mean.

There was something about that girl. The cute way she nibbled on her pen when she didn't know the answer to a question in class, the way her nose scrunched up when she was disagreeing with Katie but didn't want to voice it aloud, the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled, the way she tucked her hair behind her ears and let her fingers linger there when she was reading a book that she was especially engrossed in...Naomi pounded harder on the keys, trying to pound the images out of her head. She shouldn't know all of that. She shouldn't have noticed all of that. But she did and she had. It was Emily Fitch. She was special. Naomi didn't want to think so, but nobody had gotten under her skin like Emily had. That was what bugged her the most. She fought and she fought and this quiet little girl somehow still worked her way in.

Naomi closed her eyes as her fingers danced, squeezing them shut. Emily Fitch. The girl could very possibly be the death of her. No...make that: would very probably be the death of her.

She was gorgeous though. There was no denying that really. Her big brown eyes, her porcelain skin, her little button nose...All of it made her beautiful. The cute little quirk of her rosebud lips made them look all the more kissable. And it was more than that too. When she wasn't busy shooting Naomi lovesick looks she was really rather fun to hang out with. It was why she'd been with her and Pandora's party to begin with.

She let her fingers run down the keys and strike the final chords of the song. Her fingers hovered as she tried to decide what to play next. Her anger had mostly drained away while playing that last song, so she was in the mood for something lighter, something...more romantic.

Sticking with Chopin she decided to start on the newest song she was learning, though she was teaching herself mostly these days so progress was slow, especially given how infrequently she had access to a piano. She poised her fingers on the starting notes of Chopin's _Ballade No. 4 in F-minor, Opus 52_. She didn't have all of it memorised as it was quite a long song, but she could work on the bit that she did know by heart. Her fingers touched down and the notes sang out softly.

She had to focus even more on this song in order to play it properly, but even still, images of the redhead floated in and out of her consciousness as her fingers danced.

Emily sighed as she packed up her bag. Naomi had barely looked at her in class. Hell, she'd barely looked at her since they'd kissed at Pandora's party. Forget trying to hold an actual conversation with her.

It was especially frustrating because she'd basically come out to Naomi. It was the first time she'd admitted it aloud, that she was gay. And the one person who knew would barely look at it. She walked slowly down the hall, engulfed in her own thoughts.

Suddenly music broke through her reverie. She looked up and around and headed towards where the sound was originating. She peaked through the window of the music room door and her breath caught as she caught sight of a familiar form with blonde hair sitting on the piano bench, whole upper body moving as she played.

Emily's jaw dropped. She had no idea that Naomi played the piano, especially so incredibly. She glanced around the hallway, but nobody else seemed to be paying any attention to the beautiful music that was now overwhelming her brain. She slipped quietly into the room, closing the door behind her as softly as she could. She breathed out slowly as she realised that Naomi hadn't noticed.

She didn't mean to stare, especially since Naomi didn't know she was there, but she didn't want to interrupt and she couldn't help but watch as the blonde's hands flew over the keys.

It was remarkable to watch. She'd never seen anyone's fingers move so fast and the music that filled her ears was simply stunning. Naomi looked so elegant as she played and Emily could envision her in a concert hall in some slinky black dress playing to an audience of hundreds. She bit her lip at the mental image and her body felt a bit flushed. It was incredibly sexy. She felt her frustration with the blonde melt away as she watched her play. She was in awe of her. She realised as she observed, mouth gaping, that she'd possibly just fallen a little harder for Naomi.

The song came to an end and before Emily could shake herself out of her reverie and announce her presence, Naomi's fingers had started in on another song. She didn't mean to be acting all stalkerish (although she couldn't help thinking that Naomi, in her elusiveness, was rather stalkable), she just didn't have time to say anything in between songs and she didn't really want to interrupt the beautiful playing. She couldn't tear herself away from the vision in front of her either, so she simply watched on.

It was a few more minutes before Naomi's fingers began to stumble slightly over the keys. She watched as the blonde pressed down on a discordant chord in frustration and sighed, pulling her hands away from the keys.

"Well it was alright til then," Naomi muttered to herself.

Emily knew that she had to make her presence known then. She took a deep breath. "That was incredible, Naomi!" she informed the blonde, biting nervously at her lip as she was unsure of how the girl would react.

Naomi practically jumped a foot in the air as she spun her head around. It was Emily. Of fucking course it was Emily fucking Fitch. Nobody else would stalk her like that. No shaggable guy would have stumbled across her playing (not that there were any at their college anyway...tossers, the whole lot of them).

Several thoughts ran through her head, all of them rather defensive. "How long have you been standing there?" she demanded.

"Not too long. Just a few minutes," Emily replied apologetically.

"For fuck's sake!" Naomi sighed. "Can't you tell when people want to be alone?"

"Sorry," Emily mumbled, her cheeks blushing a bright red.

Naomi sighed again, but it was less exasperated this time. Emily obviously hadn't meant to intrude. She had complimented her playing as well. Still, of all the people to find her, it had to be the one she was trying to avoid? "I don't really like playing for an audience," Naomi muttered.

"Why not? You're brilliant!" Emily said eagerly, taking a small step forward.

Naomi snorted. "Oh yeah. That was brilliant just now. Couldn't even bloody remember what note to play and I didn't even know I had an audience."

Emily shrugged shyly. "I thought it sounded lovely."

"Yeah, well...I'm done now," Naomi stood and grabbed her bag.

Emily approached to the piano and let her fingers run softly over the keys, not actually pressing any of them down. "What was that last song you were playing?"

"Frederic Chopin's _Ballade No. 4 in F-minor, Opus 52_," Naomi replied.

"It sounded really complicated," Emily offered, glancing shyly up at Naomi.

"It is," Naomi said honestly, though a part of her brain scolded her for showing off a bit.

"Could you...I mean would you be willing to give me lessons?" Emily inquired softly, pressing two notes right next to each other.

Naomi cringed at the sound. Emily was probably just trying to spend time with her, and that was really not something that Naomi was sure she was comfortable with. The more time away from Emily the better really. Less time for things between them to get muddled up. Less time for her to have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Less...temptation. "I really don't think that I'd be the best teacher," Naomi replied. Still Emily wasn't looking at her. Instead, she was admiring the piano with admiration. Naomi remembered the first time her piano teacher had played a really complex song for her, the awe she'd felt, the excitement at the possibility that maybe someday she'd be able to play like that. Naomi watched Emily's face fall a bit and remembered her mother denying her lessons to start and how heartbroken she'd felt. "I don't even have a piano at home," Naomi relented a little. "So unless you have one..."

"You could give me lessons here?" Emily suggested hopefully.

Naomi hesitated again and Emily took a seat at the piano and started pressing keys at random. Most of them didn't go together. Naomi reached out instinctively and caught Emily's hands in hers, making her stop playing. "If I say yes, do you promise to stop making that awful noise?"

Emily looked up into Naomi's eyes and suddenly Naomi was finding it a little harder to breathe. She was suddenly acutely aware that she was holding Emily's hands in her own and she dropped them like she'd been burnt.

If Emily noticed, she only showed it for a split second. "Promise," she replied.

Naomi swallowed hard. "Ok. Good. Meet me here...I dunno tomorrow after school or something."

"I can't tomorrow. Katie's insisting we go shopping," Emily rolled her eyes.

Naomi crossed her arms in annoyance. "Do you want lessons or not?" she snapped.

Emily pursed her lips for a second. "What about during lunch tomorrow?"

Naomi paused, unsure if she really wanted to spend her lunch in here teaching Emily to play, but she'd already said she'd do it so she might as well. It wasn't like she was especially social at lunch time anyway. "Ok, fine."

Emily smiled broadly at her and she did her best to ignore the way that her stomach flipped.

"Right, well, I've got to go," Naomi lied. She just needed to get out of the room with Emily before things became awkward.

"Ok. See you tomorrow," Emily said cheerfully.

"Right, yeah...See you," Naomi replied before quickly scooting out of the room. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath once she was outside. Just being that close to Emily had set her heart racing. Giving her lessons was going to be a problem. She was stuck doing it now, though. She took another deep breath. _It'll be alright,_ she tried to tell herself. _It's just piano lessons._ She just wished that she really believed that.


	2. Chapter 2

She hated how nervous she was. It was just a stupid piano lesson, right? Just a stupid piano lesson with Emily. That was the problem. Piano didn't make her nervous. Piano comforted her, soothed her, made her brain stop just for a minute and relax. Emily did not. Emily put her on edge, pushed her, made her think and feel things she wasn't willing to. This was a bad idea.

Naomi tapped her pencil nervously against the desk. She'd long ago tuned out of whatever Kieran was droning on about. She was normally good in his class, she knew politics after all. Besides, he didn't really give a damn if she paid attention. She was well aware she was his favourite.

It's just she wished that this wasn't her last class of the day. She wished that she didn't have to spend time alone in a music room with Emily. It wasn't even like she could keep a safe distance from her. It was awfully hard to teach someone to play the piano from a distance.

"Right, you little fuckers, I know you only really pay attention to this anyway: You're dismissed!" Kieran announced, and Naomi felt her heart rate increase tenfold.

For once she dawdled in gathering her books together and leaving the classroom, but when she eventually looked up, Emily was standing there, smiling expectantly at her.

"Ready for my first lesson," Emily offered with a small grin.

"Great," Naomi forced a smile. She felt like her heart was pounding so hard that it was echoing around the room, but if Emily noticed, she didn't say anything.

Naomi hoped that the music room would be occupied already when they got there. After all, it had been occupied for a week straight when she'd wanted to use it to work out things by herself.

One glance in the window of the door let her know that she had no such luck. Of course she didn't. Life didn't work like that. Things were only occupied when you didn't want them to be.

Naomi took a deep breath and entered the room, Emily close on her heels. They approached the large piano and then stood awkwardly in front of it, unsure of exactly how to proceed.

Naomi had spent a lot of time the night before going over her early piano lessons. They'd been so long ago, that she'd had trouble remembering exactly what they'd done. She'd managed to find a few of her old piano books and had brought them with her. She was slightly hesitant to pull them out though. The pages were covered in stickers and notes from her teacher. It felt like she'd be exposing a whole part of her life up to Emily, and she was not at all comfortable with doing so.

"Right, well, sit down," Naomi instructed after a few awkward moments of silence.

Emily did so hesitantly and Naomi crossed the room to grab a plastic chair and pulled it up alongside the piano bench. She pulled out the stack of piano books that she'd brought and picked out the most "beginner" of them and opened it up to the first page, looking for any ideas. She shook her head when she found none. She took a deep breath and then remembered how she'd always begun her lessons when she was younger.

"Do you know any scales?" Naomi ventured.

Emily scrunched up her face and looked mildly embarrassed. She shook her head.

"Right ok, well if you put the thumb of your right hand on middle C-" Naomi began.

"Middle C?" Emily questioned, a faint (and if Naomi was honest with herself, rather adorable) blush gracing her cheeks.

"Oh, um...Here," Naomi leaned over and pressed the key. "You don't know the notes, do you," Naomi realised.

Emily shook her head again.

"Ok, well...That's a C. See how it's got the two black keys to the right of it and then the white key and the other three black keys to the left?"

Emily nodded.

"All of the keys that look like that on the keyboard, like that have that position are C's. That one is called middle C because-"

"It's in the middle?" Emily suggested with a small grin.

"Am I over-explaining things?" Naomi asked, feeling suddenly even more self-conscious than she already had been.

"Just a bit," Emily admitted. "It's cute."

Naomi swallowed hard, wishing severely that Emily hadn't just said that. Maybe it was her imagination, but it felt like the room just got a little bit smaller. "Sorry," she mumbled. "Anyway, going up from there on the white keys only is D, then E, then F, then G-"

"Then H?" Emily guessed.

"Nope! A," Naomi corrected. "Then B and back to C."

"So C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C?" Emily asked, running her fingers up the keys, but hesitating when she hit G with her pinkie and then trying to figure out how to get to A.

"Good except this time, when you get to E with your third finger, tuck your thumb under and then play the other notes," Naomi instructed.

"My third finger?" Emily asked sceptically. "You mean my middle finger?"

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Yes, but like when you write out fingerings on sheet music you go by number, so your thumb is your first finger, index your second, and so forth."

"Oh," Emily replied.

"Yeah, so like when you do a C scale, and really you should do two octaves, because one is just...Well, you should do two. So when you do it with your right hand," Naomi scooted herself onto the bench next to Emily and placed the thumb of her right hand on a lower C, "you play 'til your third finger, then sweep your thumb under, keep going, and then when your fourth finger hits B, sweep your thumb under again to keep going up the other octave," Naomi demonstrated. "Then the same in reverse when you come back down."

Emily watched Naomi's fingers, then tried to copy what she'd just seen at the same speed. Her fingers fumbled after a few notes.

Naomi smiled to herself. "Slow down."

Emily just nodded and tried again. Naomi nodded in approval as Emily swung her thumb under after three notes, then again when she remembered to do it again to get her thumb back onto the C. Naomi shook her head and had to laugh when Emily neglected to sweep her thumb under again after the next three notes.

"No, no, go back. You've got to sweep your thumb under again there," Naomi instructed, unthinkingly reaching out and pushing Emily's fingers down on the keys, then pushing her thumb under. "Remember? It's after the third finger, then after the fourth finger, then after the third finger again."

Naomi was aware of Emily stiffening beside her, and Naomi's eyes couldn't help but catch the way Emily's neck stretched up a little more as she swallowed hard. Only then did Naomi's eyes really take in Emily's hand in her own. _Shit!_ She thought to herself. It was things like this that she was trying to avoid when she'd first had the urge to turn down lessons. She felt her heart start to race, and suddenly her palms felt clammy. She pulled her hand away quickly and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Go ahead and try again," Naomi instructed as she moved as stealthily as she could off of the piano bench and back onto the chair.

Emily gave her a curious look and Naomi felt like the petite redhead was trying to see inside her head. After a second Emily looked away again, and let her fingers run slowly up the keys.

"Better," Naomi nodded her approval, hating the way that her voice sounded a little strangled. How could this small girl have such an effect on her? She needed to distract herself. She pulled a notebook out of her bag and drew five lines on it, then drew the symbol for treble clef and wrote out the C scale, starting on middle C. "So this is the scale, in case you forget," Naomi said, tearing out the page and placing it in front of Emily who stared blankly at it. "Shit! You don't read music, do you?" Naomi murmured, hitting her forehead with her palm. She'd practically learned to read music before she'd learned to read words. The idea that someone might not understand what each note meant hadn't even occurred to her until now.

Emily shook her head and Naomi noticed the way a small blush spread across her cheeks. It was rather cute. _No! No it's not!_ She scolded herself internally.

Naomi took the piece of paper back and drew out another measure, drawing whole notes in each space, and labelling it.

"Face?" Emily read out when Naomi handed it to her.

"Yes. Face, exactly. The spaces in the treble clef, which is what your right hand plays, spell out face. The bottom one is F, then A, then C, then E. And that C is the C above middle C, ok?" Naomi explained.

Emily hit the note in question. "That one?"

"Yeah!" Naomi found herself smiling involuntarily.

Naomi took the paper back and wrote out whole notes on each of the lines. She wrote out E, G, B, D, and F. "Ok now the trick with these is to remember the phrase 'Every Good Boy Does Fine'," Naomi replayed.

"Why isn't it every good girl?" Emily protested and Naomi couldn't help but let out a small laugh. She remembered asking a similar question as a child.

"Because girl doesn't start with B. So the notes are E, G, B, and F. Every good boy does fine. Get it?"

"Got it, but girl still sounds better," Emily replied and glanced at Naomi.

Naomi didn't miss the way that Emily looked at her, and she was far from thrilled that it made her stomach twist into knots.

"What about the bottom notes? For the left hand?" Emily inquired.

"You mean the bass clef?" Naomi shot back, lips quirking up in amusement.

"Yeah, that," Emily replied, blushing a little again.

"Why don't we just worry about the treble clef for right now?" Naomi suggested.

Emily nodded, but she seemed a little disappointed.

"Know what would be good? If you could buy like an introductory music theory book or something. It would help you learn the terminology and whatnot," Naomi said, taking pity on her a little.

"Ok! Cool!" Emily smiled, her eagerness returning.

"Why don't you try the C scale a few more times," Naomi suggested, at a bit of a loss at what other progress could be made this lesson.

Emily nodded and placed her thumb back on middle C. Naomi was pleased to see that after stumbling another two times, Emily's fingers started to flow over the keys a little easier.

"Just remember to take your time and go slow. It's when you rush that mistakes happen," Naomi said soothingly as she bopped her head to the steady rhythm that Emily was creating with her fingers on the keys. She had to smirk at herself a bit. She'd heard those words far too many times from her piano teacher, and she'd always rolled her eyes at them, but here she was dispensing the same advice.

Emily finished her fifth scale and looked proudly at Naomi, clearly waiting for a response.

"Good!" Naomi smiled at her and then her stomach flipped when Emily beamed back. Naomi felt like she had to regain something here, so she scooted back onto the piano bench next to Emily and said, "Soon we'll have you practicing your scales like this." Naomi placed the thumb of her right hand on the C two octaves below middle C and the pinkie of her left hand on the C the octave below that. She played both hands up two octaves until the thumb of her right hand was on middle C, then she split them, her left hand going back down two octaves while her right hand continued on up. She brought them back together then, then continued both hands on up two octaves, aware of the way her arm brushed against Emily's body. She tried to ignore it though as she brought her hands back down so that her right thumb was on middle C then she split her hands for another two octaves and brought them back together before letting her fingers dance back down the remaining two octaves to their starting positions. "And we'll start you on arpeggios too," Naomi added, repeating the process with a C arpeggio instead of a scale, feeling goose bumps raise on her arm as it brushed against Emily again. When she actually bothered to practise her scales and arpeggios (which she really should have been doing at the start of every practise to warm up) that was how she practised. It had been ever since she was seven. It was great exercise for the fingers.

Naomi looked up and saw Emily's face had an expression of pure awe.

"Wow," Emily breathed.

Naomi felt suddenly self-conscious about her showing off (and she really couldn't deny that that was what she'd been doing). "What?" she murmured.

"It's just...That was so quick and looked so complicated. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to even play scales like that. How am I ever going to learn songs?"

Naomi shook her head. "It's not so hard. You'll get used to it, and you'll practise," Naomi encouraged. "I'll help you, don't worry."

Emily turned a hopeful smile on her and Naomi realised what she'd said. _Shit!_ She thought to herself. There really was no hope of avoiding the petite redhead now.

"Right, well that's a pretty good lesson for today," Naomi declared quickly, suddenly wanting nothing more than to escape the big brown eyes that were gazing at her.

"Oh," Emily's face fell a little. "Could you just play something? Anything? Just remind me what I'm working towards?" she suggested hopefully.

Naomi wanted to say no, but at the same time, Emily's eyes were staring back at her and Naomi was having a hard time thinking straight at all, let alone voicing an objection. Instead, she found herself nodding. She swallowed hard and turned back to face the piano, feeling Emily settling in next to her on the piano bench. Naomi was suddenly acutely aware of the proximity of their bodies. She wracked her brain for something to play, it was hard, though, with Emily's touch tingling up and down her side. Bach's _Prelude in C Major_ popped into her head. It was easy and she'd been playing it for years. She let her fingers begin to play, and tried not to rush (since she'd previously instructed Emily not to). She was finding it hard to go slowly though. At least she didn't have to concentrate too hard on the notes, however she wasn't entirely sure that that was a good thing as she kept stealing glances at Emily out of the corner of her eye.

The redhead was again watching her fingers with something akin to awe. There was something else in that look though, and it sent a shiver down Naomi's spine. Why did Emily have to seem so interested in her? More importantly, why did that interest, that attention get to Naomi so much? Why was she finding it so hard to cope with? She should just be flattered, right? That someone was interested in her, male or female. Except that it made her nervous instead, and occasionally gave her butterflies in her stomach (like at the moment if she was honest with herself), and gave her the urge to run on a regular basis.

Naomi let the song play on as her thoughts became increasingly confusing. She realised how slow and romantic the song felt with Emily at her side and she instantly wished that she'd picked something else to play. Too late now though. There wasn't much of the song left. Naomi let her tempo increase a little, eager for the song to be over. She let her eyes flit to Emily's lips and couldn't help the way that her mind flashed to how nice it had been to kiss them, to how soft they'd felt moving against her own. She turned her eyes back to the keys and kept them glued there as the song drew to a close, not even bothering to watch her fingers because they had played the song enough that they just knew where to go. She didn't linger on the last notes, but instead pulled her hands quickly of the keyboard and stood up.

"Right, well...Good first lesson," Naomi murmured as she unconsciously edged a little further away. The back of her legs hit the chair she'd dragged over, so she grabbed it and pulled it back across the room. "See if you can practise your scales somewhere, and then we'll have another lesson in a few days, ok?"

Emily nodded, but Naomi caught the way that her eyes had taken in the sudden distance between them, and the slightly disappointed look on her face made Naomi feel a bit bad. She hated that this girl's emotions actually affected her own.

"Maybe Monday?" Naomi suggested, given that it was already Thursday.

Emily's disappointment increased. Naomi closed her eyes for a second and tried to get a grip. It wasn't like she was putting the girl off that long. She'd need time to practise, right?

"I don't know where we could have a lesson earlier than then and still give you time to practise," Naomi explained, feeling a little like she was babbling, given that Emily hadn't said anything in a few minutes.

"I was talking to Freddie earlier. He said that he has a piano that I could use whenever. I'm sure...Maybe if I asked we could have a lesson there this weekend?" Emily offered.

Naomi sighed heavily. So now other people knew she was spending time with Emily. Well that was just great! Still, the practise space would be nice. And a lesson Sunday might not be a bad idea. Especially since it wasn't like Emily had that much to practise. Maybe it'd be better to do it away from college too. There would be less people to potentially walk in on them. Not that they'd be doing anything other than playing piano, but still. Besides, Freddie was always high, wasn't he? So he was probably going to be the least observant of all their friends. "Yeah, ok. Maybe ask him if Sunday would be ok?"

Emily smiled brightly and Naomi once again felt like Emily was expecting more from her than she could give. "Yeah, sure!"

Naomi crossed back to Emily and picked up the piece of paper that she'd drawn out the notes on earlier. She grabbed her pencil and scribbled her phone number on the paper. "Text me if it's ok." Naomi ignored the part of her brain that was suggesting that it was perhaps not the smartest idea to give Emily Fitch her phone number. She might get the wrong idea.

"Ok, I will," Emily grinned at her. "And thanks. For the lesson."

"Yeah, no problem," Naomi murmured. "See you." She waved quickly at Emily then left the room as rapidly as she felt she could without offending the girl.

It wasn't until she was out of the school and unchaining her bike that she felt like she was breathing normally again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to HyperFitched whose wonderful newest chapter of "I Hold A Force I Can't Contain" (which you should all be reading if you're not already cause it's brilliant!) helped chip away at my writer's block a bit, making this chapter possible. **

Emily frowned down at the keyboard. How had Naomi's left hand gone in the C scale? She'd already practiced her right hand several times and could now play the two octave C scale rather smoothly with it. She wanted to surprise Naomi by being able to do the same with her left hand. Maybe she'd even impress the blonde a bit. Maybe it'd prove to Naomi that she was quite interested in actually learning the piano, not just in spending more time with her (though Emily had to admit that that was definitely one of her motivational factors).

Emily contemplated the problem at hand. She ran her fingers up from C starting with her pinkie. My fifth finger, she reminded herself. When she hit her thumb, she considered what to do next. In her right hand's scale she put her thumb under after her third finger then ran all five fingers the rest of the way up, so maybe with her left hand it was the reverse. She tried putting her third finger under her thumb but it felt incredibly unnatural, so instead she brought it over her thumb to the A and then the remaining two notes of the first octave flowed naturally. She grinned, feeling rather pleased with herself. Using the same logic she brought her fourth finger over her thumb and continued on the second octave.

Going back down, on the other hand, proved more difficult. Her fingers seemed to want to go further than they were supposed to. Her fourth finger hit G before she could remember to put her thumb under to play it. At the end of the first octave down her fifth finger hit C before she realised that she was supposed to swing her thumb under again. Her thumb, she decided, was being thoroughly uncooperative.

Naomi's had flowed seamlessly, apparently knowing innately where to go when. Emily couldn't help but envy the skill. Then again there were other things about Naomi that she envied too. And plenty of things she admired.

Emily tried again, slower, careful to focus on each note and each movement of her finger. She grinned to herself when she managed to make it back down with only one slip up. She played it a few more times, trying to get the feeling of it, then played the scale once more with her right hand before she decided to pack it up and call it a day.

She still had to look at the introduction to music theory book she'd bought the day before. As she put Naomi's little hand written notes back into her bag, she contemplated the idea that Naomi had ever been at the stage that she was now at. She couldn't picture it. Naomi's fingers had flown over the keys without hesitation. When she'd first stumbled across the blonde playing, it had almost seemed like her brain wasn't even completely involved in it and her fingers had been moving of their own accord, playing off some motor memory that was deeply ingrained. The girl clearly had extremely capable hands.

(Emily couldn't help but wonder what else they'd be capable of.)

Freddie stumbled in the door just as Emily was heading out, and she stood back, letting the boy pass by her, the unmistakable stench of weed flooding her nostrils as he brushed past. "Good practice?" he asked.

"Yeah. Thanks again for letting me practice here," she replied softly.

"No problem. There's always someone practicing something in our house. May as well be you. Besides, the piano doesn't get much attention now that Karen's turned her focus to singing and dancing," Freddie rolled his eyes.

"Right. She's on that Search for a SexxBomb show, right?" Emily said politely. She didn't watch it, but she was sure that Katie (who was an avid fan) had told her that.

"Right," Freddie grumbled, seeming less than thrilled.

Emily decided to change the subject. "Freds?"

"Yeah?" Freddie looked up again.

"Would it be alright if I had a lesson here on Sunday?" Emily requested.

Freddie shrugged. "Sure. Like I said. Whenever."

"Thanks," Emily grinned, trying to control herself a little. She didn't want to seem so over eager that even an extremely stoned Freddie would start asking questions. Questions that she wouldn't be overly thrilled about answering and that Naomi would undoubtedly be even less thrilled if she answered.

Freddie nodded then appeared to lose interest in her presence, so Emily simply waved goodbye and slipped out the door.

She set off down the street towards her house and pulled her phone out of her pocket as she did so. She opened a blank message to send to Naomi and paused. She wanted to word her text carefully. She wasn't blind. She knew that Naomi was on edge about giving her lessons. She probably thought that she was going to try to kiss her again or something (as if Naomi hadn't made her feelings on the matter perfectly clear...although a girl could dream, right?).

She needed to tell Naomi that the lesson was on for tomorrow (unless she'd changed her mind, and Emily really hoped she hadn't). She wanted to say that she was looking forward to it, but was worried that Naomi might interpret it wrong.

_Freds says ok for lesson 2morrow._ _~Em_

She sent after typing and deleting an "x" after her name four times. It was good, she decided. All about the lessons. _It let's Naomi know you're serious._

She clutched her phone tightly in her hand, eagerly awaiting the response. Five minutes passed and none came. Another ten passed and still no reply. She slipped her phone back into her pocket as she closed the door to her house behind her. She tried to convince herself that Naomi must just be busy as she climbed the stairs to her room. She tried reassuring herself that Naomi wasn't going to back out of this lessons deal on her as she pulled the music theory book out of her bag. She opened to the first page and began reading over the differences between the different types of notes beginning with a semibreve, or whole note.

She moved on to learning about time signature, or meter. She finished up that section, then pulled out her phone to make sure the sound was on, just in case Naomi had already texted her back and she'd just missed it. She couldn't stop the way her face fell. Still, it was probably just nothing. Maybe Naomi had lost her phone. Maybe she had hers on silent and just hadn't gotten Emily's text yet. She forced her frown into a tight lipped smile and returned to her book, moving on to intervals.

Whole steps, half steps, major intervals, minor intervals, perfect intervals, augmented intervals, diminished intervals, unisons, seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and sevenths. She learned all of these terms, what they meant, and how to achieve them, though she had to admit that her brain was swimming a bit with the information. She wasn't sure that she fully understood all of it even with the diagrams of the notes in what she now knew were musical staffs. She wished that Naomi was there to help her, to explain things to her while her hands glided gracefully over the keys of a piano. She closed her eyes, visualising the way that Naomi's fingers looked as they pressed down on each note, as if caressing it, sometimes harder, sometimes softer, but always with care.

Emily shook her head as she felt her body starting to heat up in a familiar way. (Familiar ever since she'd started daydreaming about Naomi, before she'd known enough to even really think about her fingers and what they might be capable of.) She needed to focus on something else. _Naomi's not even texting you back_, she reminded herself, allowing the first hints of bitterness and disappointment to creep into her thoughts.

She decided to review the things that she'd learned, searching out what she actually knew and what she should ask Naomi about next lesson (assuming Naomi texted her back). Each staff had five lines. That was simple enough. There was one squiggly symbol that meant treble clef, which is what she was supposed to play with her right hand and was the higher notes on the piano, and then there was a backwards c looking shape that meant bass clef and those were the lower notes. She knew that much at least now. She'd retained that. She had a basic understanding of the types of notes too. Some were longer than others. Semibreve's she knew she had to hold for four whole counts. Things got confusing once she hit meters. She just couldn't imagine what the difference between 3/4 time and 6/8 time. The fractions equalled the same thing, shouldn't the times mean the same thing? The book had said something about 6/8 time having quavers, or eighth notes, being the one beat unit while 3/4 time had crotchets, or quarter notes as the one beat unit, but she still didn't really get it.

Emily sighed heavily and closed the book. She'd accomplished as much as she was going to for today. Really some of this stuff would just be easier if Naomi was there to explain it to her. She checked her phone again, but there was nothing. She tossed it down in annoyance onto her bed, watching lazily as it bounced, flipped over, then came to its final resting place near her pillow.

She groaned, annoyed with her own need to hear from Naomi. It wasn't really a big deal if she didn't. She had a lesson on Monday, still, right? So what if Naomi didn't give her one tomorrow? It was just one more day to wait. One more day before she got to see Naomi's brilliant blue eyes, luscious pink lips, and bleach blonde hair. She sighed again and tried not to think that this might have been different. The lesson at Freddie's would have been just the two of them, alone, together, away from college and from Katie and from their friends. Still, moping around her room wouldn't solve anything.

Emily headed downstairs and was surprised to find her sister banging around the kitchen. She had expected Katie to be out somewhere with Danny like she was most weekends. "What're you doing home?" she asked, the question coming out more accusing than she'd meant it.

"Am I not allowed to be in my own fucking house?" Katie growled, and Emily noticed that her voice sounded a bit off.

"What's wrong?" Emily moved quickly to her sister's side and putting a comforting hand on Katie's shoulder.

"Ugh, it's nothing!" Katie replied sharply, twisting her arm out of her sister's grasp. She slammed the cupboard she'd been looking in, and Emily jumped at the harsh noise. "Why don't we have any fucking real food in the house? Like ice cream for fuck's sake! What's so fucking evil about ice cream that we can't keep it in our freezer?"

"You know Mum's crazy about that type of thing," Emily brushed off her sister's complaint, worry building inside of her. This wasn't like Katie. "Now what's wrong?"

Katie finally turned to face Emily, and she saw the mascara streaked down her sister's face.

"Katie," she said, voice raised in alarm. "What's wrong?"

"Fucking wanker, tit face, cock sucker Danny!" Katie sighed, and Emily could tell that Katie was biting back tears despite her harsh words.

"What'd he do?" Emily asked, though she was hardly surprised that he'd done something. He was a right arsehole, no doubt.

"Licked whipped cream of some other girl's tits and posted the picture online!" Katie growled. "Suffice to say I kicked his sorry arse to the curb!"

Emily wrapped her sister in a hug and Katie let her, seeming to sag with relief into her twin's embrace. "You're better off without him anyway. You deserve way better."

"Damn straight!" Katie murmured into Emily's shoulder, but Emily could tell that her sister had started crying again.

"Tell you what," Emily suggested. "Why don't you go take a shower while I go buy us some ice cream, and then we can watch a movie together?"

"Mint chocolate chip," Katie instructed, pulling back and wiping her eyes harshly.

Emily rolled her eyes, even though she'd anticipated her sister's response. She patted Katie on the arm, but Katie was already pulling herself back together. Emily knew that her twin did not like being seen as weak by anybody, even her.

Emily headed to the doorway and was shrugging on her coat before she heard a quiet, "Thanks," from Katie who was now on the stairs behind her. She didn't acknowledge it. She knew her sister wouldn't want her to. She could already hear Katie's footsteps at the top of the stairs.

Emily sighed and pulled the door open, heading out to buy ice cream, her phone on her bed, forgotten for now.

Katie already seemed worlds better by the time Emily got home with the ice cream. She had picked out the DVD, and was already watching the previews when Emily settled on the couch beside her, ice cream and two spoons in hand.

Emily smiled as Kate scooted in a little closer to her, the only sign that she still wasn't feeling a hundred percent. She knew that small moments like this made being a twin worth it, even if it meant a general lack of privacy and even if Katie walked all over her for the most part. It was the small moments when they could be there for each other, when they could support each other and back each other. That was when Emily still enjoyed her twin's company.

They finished the tub of ice cream half way through the film and Katie repositioned herself to lay her head on Emily's lap.

Emily's fingers stroked her sister's hair absently as the movie continued. "You're going to find someone so much better than him. Someone who actually deserves you," she murmured.

Katie didn't say anything, just snuggled in a little closer.

It wasn't until the movie ended that Emily remembered that she was expecting a text message. Katie waved her away when she asked if it was alright if she went to check something, straightening her top and saying she really needed to get started on finding her next boyfriend anyway.

Emily forced herself to climb the stairs one at a time. She wasn't going to rush for a text message that may or may not be there. She sat down gingerly on her bed, surprised to find herself a bit nervous as well as eager.

She picked up her phone, took a deep breath, and turned it over, hitting a button to light up the screen. Her breath caught and a grin slowly spread across her face when she saw that there was indeed a text message from Naomi waiting for her, sent just over an hour ago.

_She could've texted to say she can't do a lesson tomorrow,_ Emily reminded herself, trying not to get her hopes up.

She opened the message and then couldn't stop herself from smiling widely.

_Cool. What time? How's 2 sound? ~N_

She hit reply unhesitatingly.

_2 works for me! ~E_

Emily texted back. What she'd wanted to type was that 2 sounded wonderful! Any time that she was going to meet Naomi (especially for piano lessons) sounded perfect to her. She had reminded herself that they were just tentatively friends though, and that response would've been a bit more than friendly.

This time it was only a matter of minutes before her phone sounded.

_Great. Txt me his address? ~N_

Emily read, smiling at the word, "great." Did that mean that Naomi was looking forward to the lesson? _No, of course not! Stop reading too much into things, Emily!_ She scolded herself internally.

She texted his address right back and waited to see if Naomi would text anything else back.

As the minutes ticked past, she began to think that no response was coming. It wasn't like one was needed in this case anyway. Plus she'd see her tomorrow.

Sixteen minutes exactly passed until her phone sounded again. She picked it up from where it lay next to her on the bed.

_Ok. Cool. C u there! ~N_

Emily smiled. She knew she was reading too much into things again, but the exclamation mark just made something in the pit of her stomach do a little flip. It was almost like Naomi was excited to see her tomorrow. She wasn't, Emily was sure, but it was nice to see that she also didn't seem like she was dreading it either (at least as far as the amount of emotion that could be conveyed in a text message).

Emily sent a quick text back, and knew better than to expect another from Naomi. The conversation had drawn to a close. Besides, she'd see her tomorrow. At two. Emily smiled to herself and clutched her phone close for a second. Tomorrow she had a piano lesson with Naomi Campbell outside of school. She couldn't help thinking that tomorrow was going to be a good day.

Naomi had been annoyed at the way that her pulse had quickened when she'd gotten the first text. She'd contemplated not answering it. She could always say that she'd lost her phone, or it'd been off, or something that would explain why she wasn't actually a cunt who just hadn't bothered replying. The thing was none of them would've been true.

Plus, if Emily had spoken to Freddie, it presumably meant that she'd gone to his house to practice. If she was practicing, that was good, and definitely to be encouraged. Besides, it was just another lesson, right? Except that the last one had practically left her gasping for air.

She had gone to shower, then had tea with her mum before she'd managed to come up with a texted reply. All business. No point in giving Emily ideas about things.

Naomi had hated how excruciating she found it to wait for Emily's reply. Was this some sort of payback for her not replying right away? Because if that was the case, then Emily was simply being childish.

Naomi had had to shake those thoughts out of her head. It wasn't like Emily's life revolved around her, right? She probably just hadn't gotten it yet. Or maybe she'd even turned her phone off for some reason, thinking that Naomi wasn't going to respond.

Naomi had tried not to check her phone regularly. She'd tried to focus on reading bloody _Hamlet_ (though in truth she'd read it before, so she was just refreshing it in her memory). Instead she found her fingers drumming on her desk and her mind elsewhere as her eyes constantly drifted towards her mobile.

After half an hour of no reply she had slammed her book closed and given up pretending that she wasn't waiting for a response. If her brain was going to fucking insist on thinking about Emily related things, she should at least channel it into something productive. She had rummaged around her bookshelf and pulled open a mostly empty notebook of blank sheet music. She had opened to the first page and the blank staff had stared back at her.

If Emily was anything like she'd been when she was just starting out, then the girl wouldn't be able to wait to learn an actual song, even if it was just a stupid little one.

Naomi drew out the treble clef and bass clef symbols, drew the connecting line on the one side, and wrote out the time signature with a c denoting common time, or 4/4 time. She drew two crotchet notes with a line through them one line below the bottom line of the treble clef staff, for middle C. She continued out the tune in her head, and drew out the notes that followed, inserting lines to denote the end of a bar, or measure, when necessary. She proceeded to fill in the same for the bass clef, deciding that to start with, it would be a good idea if Emily's left and right hands played the same thing. She could teach her variations of it later. She examined her handiwork and coloured in the second line at the end of the piece to make it thicker, denoting the end of the song. She studied it for a few more seconds before scrawling "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" across the top in bold lettering. She pencilled in the word "by" but then realised she hadn't the foggiest idea who had initially written it, if credit was indeed given to somebody, so she erased it again.

It was a good song to start with. There were lots of things you could do with it. There were variations of it so elaborate that you could hardly identify it as the original song unless you looked closely at the basic progression of the piece. It was good for composition as well. Variations on it were fairly easy to compose and they had, in fact, been some of the first things she had composed, though she felt a bit silly about it now. She hoped that Emily wouldn't mind such a childish song.

She also hoped that Emily had actually taken the time to study the notes and learn a bit of music theory so maybe Naomi wouldn't have to coach her through what everything she'd written actually meant.

Naomi stared at the page. Music was like another language to her, one she'd always spoken, or at least for about as long as she could remember. She'd never really thought about it before, but she was starting to realise that she'd rather taken for granted her ability to look at a page crammed with notes and all sorts of other different little notations of sharps and flats and changes in key and time signature, and she instantly understood what was happening there, what all of it meant. She was starting to really enjoy that ability.

When the reply text had come another several minutes later, Naomi had practically jumped. Her head had finally drifted onto another topic, one she was familiar and at ease with. Her mind had been lost in music, her digits tapping out fingerings to pieces that were playing in her brain.

That time, she'd texted back right away. As the text conversation continued, Naomi searched the communications for any sign that Emily was reading more into this than just piano lessons and was confused to find that she was simultaneously relieved and disappointed that she didn't find any. _You're only disappointed because it's nice to be liked by anybody, no matter their sex,_ Naomi tried to convince herself. It was logical. People were always flattered when someone was attracted to them, even if they didn't like the person back the same way, right?

So why then, was she now clutching her phone staring at the words across the screen while she lay on her back in her bed, with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips just from the words, "Ok. Sounds good! C u! :)"

The smiley face, that was what did it. Naomi could just see Emily's shy smile and the way the lines around her mouth would attractively as she did so, and the way her eyes would crinkle a bit as if they were smiling too. She could imagine the little cheeky twinkle that she occasionally caught in Emily's eyes as well.

She closed out of the text and put her phone on the floor by her bed, before laying back and sighing deeply. Why did Emily conjure of these images in her head? Why could she picture the girl so clearly? Surely she couldn't do that with everyone she knew, right? But what did it mean that she could with Emily? Just that they were friends, right? Or becoming friends? Maybe?

Naomi sighed again, her thoughts turning into a confusing, garbled mass as they swarmed around her head. Why couldn't life be straight forward? Like music? Music made sense. There were rules. Sure you could play it stylistically different or improvise or take what other people had written and compose more, add more so that it was better or different or more advanced, or take away so it was more basic, you could rearrange it even, but it was still music, still the same piece at the base of it. Life wasn't like that. Naomi was realising that life wasn't straight forward at all.


	4. Chapter 4

She approached the door at the side of the house tentatively, not sure if she was supposed to knock or just go in. Maybe Emily was meeting her outside? Was anyone else going to be home? God, it was stupid the way her stomach was all aflutter. There was no reason she should be the bundle of nerves that she was at that moment. It was just a stupid piano lesson. So what if it was in a private setting and time away from school with Emily? That didn't mean that anything would happen.

"Hey," a familiar eager voice greeted her.

Naomi turned to find Emily standing up from a bench in a surprisingly pleasant garden. Clearly Freddie wasn't the one who kept it up, given the amount of pot he smoked and the amount of care put into the garden. The somewhat dishevelled shed on past the bench looked much more like somewhere he'd haunt.

"Hi," Naomi replied decidedly less enthusiastically. She only hoped that her nervousness didn't show through in her voice.

"Come on, I've got the key already," Emily said as she headed to the side door. "No one's home at the moment so Freddie told me where they keep the spare," she elaborated.

"Cool," Naomi murmured, more because she felt a response was expected of her than for any other reason. At least no one else was around. No one to interrupt their lesson or make her feel anymore self-conscious than she already was. On the other hand, that meant that she was alone in a house with Emily.

"Well, come on," Emily prompted, holding the door open with an amused and almost hopeful grin.

Naomi couldn't help thinking it was an adorable expression. But no. She couldn't think like that. It just wasn't allowed. She wasn't gay. She didn't like Emily like that. She definitely hadn't gone to sleep last night feeling excited at the prospect of this lesson today. She stepped past Emily into the house, unable to avoid taking in the scent of strawberries and floral shampoo and everything that just smelled so quintessentially of Emily as she did so.

Emily closed the door behind her, then brushed past Naomi down the hall into what had clearly at some point been a music room. A piano stood against one wall, cello on a stand in the corner with a music stand beside it. A few African drums lay in another corner and a pan flute was mounted by hooks to one wall. The far wall had what looked to be a cramped makeshift dance studio, with a series of small, inadequate mirrors mounted on it and a railing attached to the wall. That and the piano now seemed the most used parts of the room. "That's right. Freddie's sister is in some televised talent competition or something," Naomi recalled, mostly to herself.

"Search for a Sexxbomb," Emily supplied as she took a seat on one side of the piano bench.

"Right," Naomi nodded, eyeing the spot next to the redhead warily. She remained standing. "Have you seen her at all? She any good?"

Emily shrugged. "She's pretty good. Comes across a bit superficial for my liking."

Naomi studied Emily for a second. Had Emily actually glanced quickly up at her with a pointed look or had she imagined it. Surely Emily wasn't implying she was superficial! Naomi shook her head. She was going to drive herself insane if she started overanalysing looks that may or may not have even occurred. "So why don't you show me what you practiced, and then I can teach you something new?" she suggested, turning to the business at hand. She just needed to focus on the piano and everything would be okay.

Emily faced forward, sat up straight, and placed her right thumb primly on middle C. Naomi stood just behind what Emily had obviously left open as her side of the piano bench and smiled softly. It was cute seeing how much effort Emily was putting into this.

Naomi's eyebrow raised in surprise as she watched Emily's fingers climb up the C scale with much more ease than she'd done the day of the first lesson. She'd definitely practiced and done so well. She was playing more quickly than Naomi'd anticipated as well.

Emily stumbled once on the way back down, but recovered quickly.

"Good job," Naomi smiled at her once she'd finished.

"Wait," Emily cut her off. "There's more."

Naomi's eyes widened in surprise but she nodded for the girl to continue. She watched as Emily placed her left hand on the keyboard and began a C scale. Naomi could tell that in her excitement she was rushing it, so after her second slip up, she put a calming hand on Emily's shoulder. "Slow down. Take your time. Keep it a steady tempo," she advised.

Emily glanced down at the hand on her shoulder then turned back to the piano and nodded. Naomi realised that perhaps it was better not to touch Emily and she snatched her hand away as discreetly as she could. Emily glanced at her again, brows slightly furrowed, and Naomi nodded encouragingly at her to try to make up for her possibly irrational actions.

Emily took a deep breath, returning her attention once again to the piano, and started the scale again, slower this time.

Naomi found herself bobbing her head in time with the steady progression of the notes until the scale was finished. "That's great!" Naomi encouraged enthusiastically. She knew that it was a little stupid, but she couldn't help feeling a bit proud of the girl. Without thinking she took the seat beside Emily. "Really great," she repeated.

Emily beamed at her. "Thanks," she replied with a shy smile.

"Alright, why don't you do that again, and then we'll see about doing both hands together," Naomi suggested.

"Ok," Emily murmured.

She started the scale again, keeping the tempo even, and Naomi found herself relaxing even more as she became more invested in the task at hand. This was a proper piano lesson, and, so far, it was going well.

When Emily finished the scale for the second time, Naomi smiled at her. "Good job," she said encouragingly. "Alright, now try adding your right hand. Go nice and slow. Slower than you were doing it one hand at a time. You're probably more likely to mess up, but don't get discouraged. The trickiest thing will be remembering when to bring what finger over or under, ok? So try to think about that as you go. Remember in your right hand it goes one, two, three," Naomi played out the C scale lower down as she went, "one, two, three four, one two three, one, two, three, four, five. At the same time the left hand goes five, four, three, two, one-"

"Three, two, one, four, three, two, one, three, two, one," Emily finished naming the fingers and when Naomi glanced at her she noticed the way that the girl's eyes were focused on her fingers.

She swallowed hard before responding. "Right. Ok, give it a go."

Emily poised her hands on the keyboard an octave apart and began slowly but steadily. Naomi couldn't help but be pleased with the girl's progress. As Naomi had anticipated, Emily fumbled a few times, but persisted, and before long her fingers were back in their starting positions.

"Not bad for a first attempt," Naomi said with a grin.

"Yeah?" Emily looked at her for confirmation, and Naomi was struck for a second by just how intense the girl's big brown eyes were.

"Um...yeah," she murmured, a little less sure of herself. Why the hell had her heart rate increased? There was no reason for it to! She closed her eyes and turned back to the piano. "Try it again," she instructed.

After running through the scale a few more times, Emily had noticeably improved, and Naomi felt that it was safe to move on to something else.

"So, how do you feel about learning a new scale?" Naomi inquired.

"But I just learned this one!" Emily complained and Naomi knew that she was a bit nervous.

"It's ok. You'll practise that one more before our next lesson. This will just give you something else to practise," Naomi explained. "You must be getting bored of the C major scale."

Emily nodded slightly, a sheepish expression on her face. "A bit," she admitted. "Can't I learn a song?"

"Tell you what, you learn the left hand of the G major scale and I'll teach you a short song," Naomi replied, feeling quite pleased with herself that she'd written out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" the night before.

Emily grinned at that suggestion and nodded.

_God, she's cute when she smiles like that,_ Naomi thought, then immediately scolded herself. That wasn't an appropriate way to think about her classmate, her pupil, her...friend. Especially a friend she'd kissed. Her lips tingled as the most recent kiss flashed through her mind and she had to swallow hard.

"Ok, so how's the G major scale go?" Emily inquired.

"Do you still have the paper I drew out the C scale on?" Naomi asked.

Emily nodded and pulled the paper in question out from her bag.

Naomi took it and pulled a pencil out of her own bag, drawing out another blank staff, and drawing out the notes of the G scale for Emily. She set the paper on the music stand and played out the notes, calling them out as she went. "So this scale just has one sharp, and it goes G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, and then G again."

"OK, but quick question?" Emily said hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Naomi prompted.

"What's a sharp?"

Naomi had forgotten that she hadn't explained that yet. "You didn't read about that in music theory yet?"

"No. I was mainly focused on learning about time signature and the different types of notes," Emily admitted.

Naomi was rather surprised that Emily had taken the time to actually read any of the music theory, even though she had expressly requested that she do so. It had always been her least favourite part of piano lessons. Naomi had much preferred the hands on learning to reading about music. "Ok, well sharps and flats are the black notes," Naomi explained. "Sharps are indicated in music with this symbol," Naomi pointed to the symbol that she'd drawn on the scale, "while flats are indicated by this symbol," she drew out the symbol for Emily.

"Ok, but which black notes are sharps and which flats?" Emily asked.

Naomi tried her best to repress a chuckle. "They're all both," she explained when Emily shot her a questioning look.

"What?" Emily's face scrunched in confusion and she looked almost distraught at that news.

Naomi couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her then. "It's not that hard, don't worry," she assured the girl. See the black note just above C?" Naomi pointed out the note in question, and Emily nodded. "It's a half step above C, so it's C and, at the same time, it's a half step below D, so it's also D ," Naomi elaborated.

"So that would be D and E ?" Emily inquired, pointing the black note above the one that Naomi had indicated.

"Exactly," Naomi beamed.

"And that makes this," Emily hesitated a second before finding the note she was looking for, "F ?" she guessed.

"Very good," Naomi praised her.

"And G ," Emily concluded.

"Yes, but for the G Major scale we'll call it F ," Naomi relayed.

"Why?" Emily asked.

Naomi opened her mouth to answer, but realised that she didn't have one. "I don't know. It's just how it is. I never thought to ask," she admitted with an embarrassed grin. She kind of admired how Emily's eagerness translated into curiosity. Naomi never would have had the guts to ask that now because she wouldn't have wanted to appear ignorant. Emily seemed to simply want to learn, and it was rather cute the way she didn't appear to care if she came across as a bit foolish in the process. "Anyway, do you want to give it a go?" Naomi asked. "The scale I mean?"

Emily nodded and then placed the thumb of her right hand tentatively on G. She played the notes slowly, but even still, she almost forgot to hit F instead of F natural.

"Good," Naomi commended her when she had finished. "Try it again a few more times, and then I promise we can move onto the song," Naomi instructed. She couldn't help thinking, as she watched Emily play through the scale twice more, that it was a bit strange that she was actually enjoying this lesson. Having Emily at her side was putting her oddly at ease, in a way that she was aware that she probably shouldn't be comfortable with. Still, it was just a piano lesson, right? It didn't matter that it was with somebody she'd kissed...twice. The focus was piano for both of them, and that made it easy. Besides, Emily was just so cute and eager to learn, that it was impossible not to want to teach her. "Good," she praised when Emily had finished.

Emily grinned at her, and Naomi ignored the way her stomach flipped when Emily's brown eyes twinkled in her direction.

"Right," she cleared her throat. "Ready to learn a song?"

"Definitely," Emily's smile widened.

Naomi pulled out the sheet of music she'd prepared and placed it on the stand. "Can you read all of those notes?" she inquired.

Emily wrinkled her nose and examined the paper for a minute. "'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'? Really?"

Naomi laughed lightly. "You have to start somewhere," she pointed out.

Emily seemed slightly disappointed but she nodded her agreement. "I suppose so."

"So can you read the notes?"

"Yeah. I think so," she replied.

"Ok, why don't you go ahead and give it a try. Sight read it," Naomi suggested.

Emily nodded and placed her fingers on the first note. She paused after the first two notes and Naomi caught a muttering of "Every good..." before Emily's fingers moved to G. She grinned to herself as she recognised the beginning of the mnemonic device.

"Use your fifth finger," Naomi instructed as Emily went to push it with her third instead.

Emily nodded, adjusted her fingers, and proceeded.

"Hold that note a little longer," Naomi instructed as the song continued.

Emily nodded again. "Right, because it's a minim," she murmured, and Naomi wasn't sure if she was talking to her or to herself, but she replied, "Right," to her. "So you hold it for-"

"Two beats," she cut her off.

Naomi smiled. She was pleased that Emily seemed to have not only studied, but also absorbed some of the music theory. It was going to make teaching her that much easier.

Emily played on and seemed to get the hang of the familiar tune. Naomi decided that next time she'd bring something else, hopefully less familiar, to test the girl's note recognition more thoroughly. Besides, it was never too soon to get good at sight reading. Her teacher had made her sight read a song at the end of each lesson, just so she kept it up. Naomi had to admit that it made sight reading a new song these days much easier. "Good," Naomi declared when Emily had finished.

Emily let out a small laugh. "Thanks, but it was only 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'," Emily reminded her.

"True," Naomi conceded, "but then again, this is also 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'." Naomi placed her fingers over the keys and improvised a slightly more impressive version of the song. "As is this," Naomi continued, changing it up again to create a different variation on the theme. She was aware of Emily's jaw dropping beside her.

"Yeah, but...That's not...That's nothing like what I played!" she protested.

"It's still the same basic progression of notes. The same basic theme," Naomi explained. "Anyway, baby steps," she added when she saw that Emily was about to protest further.

Emily sighed. "I suppose so. It just doesn't seem like I'll ever be able to play like you. I mean you made that up," she pointed out.

"I've got a few years of practice on you," Naomi countered playfully, knocking her shoulder into Emily's lightly.

"How many years?" Emily inquired, angling herself on the bench so that she could look more directly at Naomi.

"Umm...about twelve," Naomi recalled, automatically moving so that she too was facing Emily.

"Twelve?" Emily's eyes bugged out of her head in surprise. "Wow!"

Naomi nodded. "Yep. I started when I was four," she replied.

"No wonder you're so good," Emily said, voice clearly expressing the awe she felt.

Naomi blushed lightly. "Don't worry. If you stick with it, you'll get there," she murmured encouragingly.

Emily turned bright eyes on her and Naomi found herself suddenly biting her lower lip as she got a little lost in those chocolate orbs.

"You really think so?" Emily asked, voice soft, her hot breath lightly hitting Naomi's face.

It smelled almost sweet, she couldn't help noticing. "Yeah," she replied, her own voice rather quiet. She swallowed hard, eyes dropping momentarily to Emily's lips. God, they were luscious lips. No wonder they felt so nice to kiss. Naomi leaned in a little closer to the redhead unconsciously. She was breathing much shallower as everything Emily suddenly seemed so very just in front of her, so present, so overwhelming.

She caught Emily's eyes flicker down and then back up, and became vaguely aware that Emily was leaning in towards her. Her face was so close, and yet Naomi couldn't force herself to pull away. It was as if the petite girl before her had her in some sort of a trance. She didn't want to be further away from her.

Naomi's tongue darted out and moistened her lips. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she just felt one more kiss from those soft lips. Emily wouldn't read too much into it, right? It wouldn't be like it really meant anything. It was just...

A loud bang made Naomi jump. Emily pulled back from her instantly and Naomi looked away, and scrambled to stand up. What the hell had she been about to do? A moment later a middle aged man poked his head round the doorway.

"Oh, right. You must be umm...Freddie's friends. He said you were going to be having lessons here," the man remarked. "I'm his dad."

"Hi," Naomi replied awkwardly, fully aware that her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing rather heavily.

"How're the lessons going then?" he inquired politely, but Naomi just wished that he would leave. She needed to get out of there. She needed to get away from Emily, get some clarity.

"Good," she lied. _Except it's not really a lie,_ she reminded herself. _Emily's doing well._ Besides, nothing had really happened. How could she even be sure than anything had been about to happen? She glanced surreptitiously at Emily and found that her cheeks were a rather bright (and rather attractive) shade of red. It was all the confirmation that she needed.

"Good," Freddie's dad smiled kindly at them. "Well, I'll leave you girls to it then," he murmured after an awkward pause.

Naomi nodded and the man turned and took his leave. Naomi made a show of checking her phone for the time. "I should go, actually. My mum's expecting me," she lied. From the way that Emily's face fell, she could tell that Emily knew that.

"Oh, right. Sure," Emily nodded.

She looked so dejected that Naomi couldn't stop herself from trying to make things a little better. "So you practice that, and we'll have another lesson sometime next week," she offered before she could think better of it. It was a bad idea, she was sure of it. Still, if she could arrange it so that the next one was at school, maybe it would be alright. _Or better yet, somewhere where nobody is going to walk in and interrupt us,_ she thought, and then wondered where the unwelcome thought had come from. Still, Emily had shown a legitimate interest in learning to play. Naomi couldn't just ignore that fact.

Emily seemed to perk up a bit at that suggestion. "Yeah. Ok," she replied.

"Right. Ok. Well...See you," Naomi muttered before rushing from the room, only just catching Emily's faint reply of, "Yeah. See you," behind her.

* * *

Naomi didn't breathe normally again until she was more than halfway home. It didn't help that she'd practically run the first few blocks from Freddie's house.

She stopped for a second a block away from her house, knowing that potential madness waited for her there, and wanting a chance to think before it struck.

What the hell had she been thinking? Why had she let herself get that close to Emily? Physical closeness was obviously a bad idea. Still, how was she supposed to teach Emily piano without getting anywhere near her? And it wasn't like the entire lesson had been all awkward or steamy. She hadn't even felt like Emily was trying to flirt with her or anything. Instead, she'd mostly just gotten the sense that Emily was happy and eager to be learning to play the piano. How could she take that away from her?

Naomi sighed heavily, because one answer stuck in her mind. She couldn't, and worse than that, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to. Why the hell were things so complicated?

She took a few deep breaths and marched the remaining distance to her house, barging through the door without any attempt at grace.

"Oh, hello, love. Glad you're home," her mum greeted her warmly, but Naomi was not in the mood to make small talk or to be put to whatever inane task her mum had at hand.

"I'm going to my room," she declared.

Her mum seemed momentarily taken aback but soon recovered. "Oh, alright, dear. Is something wrong?"

Naomi shook her head vehemently and started to storm out of the room. She knew she was being rude and perhaps a bit irrational, but she didn't care. If you couldn't be rude and irrational with your mum, who could you behave that way with? She paused in the doorway. "Actually, Mum, something is wrong. I need a fucking piano, ok? The music room at school is never free and I really miss playing regularly. Do you think you can manage to find me one in between saving the animals and saving the environment?" she inquired insolently.

Her mum seemed to muse it over for a second. "Yes, probably. Would a please be too much to ask for?"

Naomi relented a little, because she was aware that she'd just been a complete bitch to her own mum, and she, to her credit, had responded calmly and nicely even. "Please?" she added.

"Right, then. I'll see what I can do," her mother informed her.

Naomi nodded and headed out of the room and began to bound up the stairs.

"Whenever you decide you want to talk, I can listen too!" her mum called after her.

Naomi scoffed at that. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to her mother about this. Whatever "this" was.


	5. Chapter 5

Emily stared at the sheet music in front of her, but she wasn't focusing on it. Her mind was stuck on the day before. It hadn't been her imagination. She was sure of it. Naomi had been leaning into her. She'd wanted to...well, Emily wasn't entirely sure what Naomi had wanted to do before Freddie's dad had barged in, but it had been _something_. They'd had a definite moment. Emily had felt it. Like electricity in the air, sparking between them, electrifying her whole body.

But then Naomi had panicked. Again. Emily had recognised that look on her face before. More than once, actually. Emily's heart had sunk.

Nonetheless, she'd stayed at Freddie's another hour, trying to practice. She'd been unable to focus then, too.

She glanced at her watch. Her free period was fast running out, and she'd promised herself she'd make progress today. She wanted to be able to show Naomi that her running away once again hadn't fazed her. Besides, she shouldn't let a girl interfere with her learning to play. Not when she was enjoying it so much.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she reopened her eyes, she was refocused. She placed her hands carefully on the piano and pressed down the first notes of the song. She was still struggling to read the notes, but the night before she'd gone over the sheet music and written out which was which above them in case she got stuck.

She stumbled through it the first time, attempting to have both hands moving to their respective notes at the same time while playing it fast enough for it to sound like the song she knew. When she finished, she imagined Naomi's voice in her head telling her to slow down and not rush it. She repositioned her hands again, took another deep breath and started again, slower.

She grinned to herself when she finished virtually error free. Progress, she thought to herself.

"Good job. You're doing well," a familiar voice that sent shivers down her spine made her jump.

.

.

Naomi had planned to avoid Emily for a few days. She supposed that it was her way of enforcing the idea that she wasn't interested in Emily as anything _more_. Her plan was going well until she was wandering the halls on her free period and heard the music. It was slow and stilted, full of errors, and she recognised it instantly. She hated that it automatically made her smile.

Emily was persistent, she had to give her that.

Against her better judgment, she went to the door to the practice room and peered in. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight. Emily was adorable. Naomi fought the thought, but there was no other word for her. Her small frame looked so petite and delicate against the grand piano. Naomi half expected to see her legs dangling off the piano bench, unable to reach the floor. She didn't of course. Emily wasn't that tiny, even if she occasionally seemed it. Then again there were moments (more frequently occurring moments of late) when Emily loomed so large in Naomi's mind that she eclipsed all thoughts of anything else.

Naomi slipped quietly inside the room, not wanting to disturb the girl's playing. When Emily started again, slower, and her fingers began to find their place more readily, Naomi smiled again. She really was learning, and it was beautiful to see her progress and determination. It made Naomi feel unexpectedly proud to think that she played a part in this by teaching her.

"Good job. You're doing well," she murmured without thinking when Emily finished the piece for the second time.

Only when Emily jumped did she remember that the girl didn't know that she was there. Emily swivelled around to face her, eyes wide.

Naomi briefly considered making a run for it, but she knew it would have been silly. Emily was staring straight at her. It wasn't like she could claim that she was never there.

"Hi," Emily finally broke the silence, swallowing nervously.

"Hi," Naomi echoed, still stuck in her imitation of a deer in headlights.

"I didn't know you were there," Emily offered up after another few seconds of awkward silence.

It was such an obvious statement that Naomi almost came up with some sarcastic retort. Almost.

She felt stuck in place, trapped.

"It's easier when you slow down, isn't it?" she said back instead.

Emily nodded, biting cutely on her lower lip and looking up at Naomi through beautifully long lashes.

Naomi took an unconscious step towards her, as if she was automatically drawn to Emily like a magnet. She really was beautiful, and almost ridiculously cute, Naomi couldn't help thinking to herself. She instantly wished that she hadn't. _Music,_ she told herself,_ focus on the music._ "Play it again," she instructed.

Emily opened her mouth as if to say something, but apparently thought better of it, and instead turned back to the piano.

Naomi felt both relieved and, curiously, a bit disappointed that Emily had opted not to say whatever she'd been thinking. _Which is stupid,_ she thought sullenly. She watched as Emily positioned her hands on the keys, and waited for the first notes to sound out.

They didn't.

Instead, after a moment, Emily looked coyly over her shoulder and said, "Are you going to stand all the way over there? I don't bite," before returning her attention to the piano.

Naomi wasn't sure why a shiver ran down her spine at the girl's words. Her brain told her that it was probably a bad idea to move closer, citing what had almost happened the day before as a reason, but her feet seemed to have a mind of their own, striding across the room until she lingered just beside the piano bench. _At least I won't seem like I'm scared,_ Naomi thought. _Which I'm not,_ she added stubbornly to herself.

Naomi caught the hints of a smile tugging on Emily's face, and then Emily began to play.

"Too fast," Naomi advised a moment later when Emily's fingers tripped over themselves, striking the wrong notes. She reached out unconsciously and put a steadying hand on Emily's shoulder.

Emily took a deep breath and started again, slower.

Naomi nodded, a pleased smile spreading across her face as Emily progressed through the piece with very few mistakes. "Better," she gave her seal of approval when Emily had finished playing.

Emily turned and smiled, and only then did Naomi realise where her hand was. She snatched it away as if she'd been burned, and, in fact, her hand felt impossibly hot. She saw Emily's face fall slightly.

She looked at the sheet music, desperate for something else music related to say. She smiled despite herself when she saw the neatly written in letters above the notes. "That's cheating," she commented, unable to wipe the grin off her face.

Emily blushed slightly. "It's just to help," she said defensively.

"So can you play it without looking at the letters?" Naomi challenged.

Emily frowned. "I don't know," she admitted.

"Scoot over," Naomi sighed, dropping her bag by the piano bench.

Emily did as instructed, and Naomi sat down beside her, reaching forward and covering the letters with her finger.

"Try it now," Naomi coaxed.

Emily hesitated for a second, but Naomi noted that she at least found the first notes right away. Emily glanced at her, nervousness flashing in her eyes.

"Go ahead," Naomi urged, suddenly aware of how close she was to Emily, the side of her leg pressing against the redhead's. She found it somehow harder to breathe, like someone was squeezing her chest tightly, forcing the air out and making it difficult to get new air in.

To her relief, Emily began to play. While the redhead was focused on playing, she wouldn't be focusing on her. She wouldn't read too much into little nothings.

The going was even slower, but Emily struggled through, only making a few mistakes.

"Not bad, but you could have memorised it. I think a test is in order," Naomi declared when Emily had finished.

Emily turned an incredulous gaze on Naomi. "A test?"

"Well, we are at college," Naomi pointed out with an amused grin.

Emily narrowed her eyes. "Oh, shut up." She stuck out her tongue, and Naomi found herself laughing.

Emily's face broke into a smile a moment later, and Naomi heard the redhead release a low chuckle.

Naomi bit her lower lip as she watched the way that the smile changed Emily's face, reaching her eyes that were twinkling brightly.

Naomi's face turned serious and she swallowed hard. "Right, so, I'm going to write out some notes, and you have to play them, ok?" she said, turning to the other side and reaching into her bag and producing a notebook and a pen.

She drew out a quick treble clef staff and wrote out a few notes in a random order. "Here. Go ahead," she prompted, setting it down on the music stand.

Emily's brows furrowed as she examined the notes, tentatively arranging her fingers where she thought they were supposed to be. She pressed experimentally at the first note.

"Good," Naomi grinned. She couldn't remember ever being so hesitant to play something. She couldn't remember a time when she wouldn't have recognised what she had written on the sheet for Emily.

Emily struck the next note more confidently.

"Not bad," Naomi nodded encouragingly as Emily continued on.

Naomi took the notebook back and wrote out another staff, making this one bass clef, and drew out another set of notes when Emily had finished the first set correctly.

Emily made a face when Naomi set the notebook back on the stand. "I'm rubbish with the low notes."

"The bass clef," Naomi corrected.

Emily nodded. "I don't know why, but I have more trouble remembering which note is which."

"It's okay. Take your time," Naomi advised soothingly.

Emily brought her left index finger up to hover over a note on the piano.

"One down," Naomi murmured softly.

Emily blushed and moved her finger as instructed. She found the next note more quickly and Naomi smiled approvingly when she'd made her way through that set of notes as well.

"Right, now for a real challenge," she muttered as she reclaimed her notebook once again. She drew out a full staff and wrote out a series of notes and chords, being sure to get notes above and below the staff lines. She set the notebook back on the stand and Emily groaned beside her.

"That's cheating! I can't read those!" Emily complained.

"Yes you can," Naomi countered. "Look, the first note's simple."

"Says music genius you," Emily muttered, and Naomi had to laugh.

"Look, you know what middle C looks like written out, right?" Naomi coached.

Emily nodded. "The dot with the line through it just below the bottom line there," Emily pointed.

"Right, so this is on the line below that, right?"

Emily nodded again.

"So that means it's-" Naomi faded out, giving Emily a chance to fill in the blank.

"An...A?" Emily hazarded a guess.

"Just any random A?"

"That one," Emily said, pushing the note in question down.

"Good. Now go on. Do the rest," Naomi instructed.

It took Emily a while, but she made it through all of the notes and chords with very few miss-steps. Naomi couldn't help feeling pleased when Emily grinned proudly at her.

"Those were hard," Emily said, the hint of a smile glimmering in her eyes.

"That's nothing," Naomi assured her. Just wait until you get music that looks like this," Naomi reached into her bag again and produced a book of sheet music that she'd shoved in there on the off chance she'd get some time to play today. It was a compilation of sonatinas by various composers, and the songs ranged from fairly easy to more complex. Naomi opened it to a random page and displayed it.

"Fuck," Emily commented as her eyes gazed over the music.

Naomi glanced at the page and knew that it looked much more impressive and much harder than it was. "Trust me, it gets so much worse."

"I changed my mind. I don't want to learn," Emily said, half kidding.

Naomi turned to her in surprise and put her hand on Emily's shoulder. "Don't say that! It's not that bad. It's worth it. There's nothing better than looking at a difficult piece of music and knowing that you can play it, or mastering a new song for the first time. It's so magical, sometimes, when you're playing, and you really just get in the groove, and you can almost sit back from it, just let your hands play, and listen, and think 'Wow, I'm making that music.'"

Emily turned her dark brown eyes to Naomi's face, and Naomi saw them widen, hints of interest, curiosity, and awe flashing in them. _God they're beautiful_, Naomi thought to herself.

"Promise me you'll keep playing, and you won't get intimidated," Naomi encouraged. She didn't want to be the reason that someone went off of music. Not when music could be so incredibly freeing.

"Okay. I promise," Emily agreed softly, not breaking her gaze for even a second.

Naomi couldn't take her eyes off of Emily. She felt like she was being sucked in by her, drowning in the brown pools of her eyes. The whole rest of the room faded out, and before her all that was left was Emily. She breathed out a shaky breath. She was finding it difficult to swallow. Her mouth felt incredibly dry.

Emily was so close. She was right there. It would be so easy to just lean in a little. It would be so easy just to bring her lips down to Emily's. Naomi's eyes flitted to Emily's lips. They were such perfect little rosebud lips.

Naomi took another ragged breath, as Emily's soft, pink tongue darted out to wet her lips.

It'd be so easy. And it would just be a kiss. Kisses weren't a big deal.

Naomi inched forward unconsciously.

Except kisses with Emily always seemed to turn into a big deal, Naomi reminded herself. They had expectations hanging on them. Until now they've been drunken mistakes, but this wouldn't be. This would be a very sober mistake.

Naomi swallowed hard and took a deep breath, shaking herself out of whatever daze she'd gotten herself into. _What the hell is wrong with you, Campbell,_ she growled internally. She pulled her hand away from Emily once more. What on earth kept possessing her to touch Emily? It never led to anything good.

Naomi opened her mouth to make an excuse to leave, but Emily's soft voice hit her ears before she could think of anything to say.

"Will you play me one of them?"

"What?" Naomi blinked at her, completely baffled as to what the girl could possibly be referring to. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest.

"One of the songs in the book. Will you play me one? Any. Just to remind me what I'm ultimately working towards with all this practicing?" Emily requested.

Naomi wanted to say no. She should say no. It would be the smart thing to say.

"Sure," her mouth betrayed her.

She took a deep breath as she flipped through the pages of music. _Just focus on the music. Just play. Pretend Emily's not even here. _She settled on Beethoven's _Sonata No. 20, Op. 49, No. 2_, put the music back on the stand, and positioned her hands. It was an awkward position with Emily still taking up a good half of the bench.

"Here, let me scoot a bit," Emily offered, moving over so that Naomi could position herself more towards the centre of the bench, once again beating Naomi to the punch.

"Thanks," Naomi mumbled, fighting the feeling of being rather overwhelmed. She moved over as well and repositioned her hands. Her eyes flitted to the music, though she knew the song, and she started to play.

As the soothing melody unfolded, she felt her body start to relax and her heart rate slow back to normal. She let the music flow out of her fingers, occasionally glancing up at the sheet music, more for comfort than because she needed to.

She couldn't help feeling pleased with herself when she made it to the end with only a few mistakes. Having Emily this close, watching her, made her nervous enough to slip up a few times, though.

"That was beautiful," Emily breathed, and when Naomi glanced at her, she saw Emily's eyes were wide in awe, focused on where Naomi's fingers still lingered on the piano.

_God, she looks beautiful like that._

The bell rang signalling the end of the period, and Naomi practically jumped out of her seat. She collected the book and her notebook off the stand quickly and shoved both in her bag, standing swiftly.

Emily stood and examined her warily, and Naomi couldn't help feeling like the redhead had been expecting this moment when she'd simply dash out of the room.

"Thanks for the lesson," Emily murmured.

"Yeah, no problem," Naomi lied. At the moment it was a problem. Or, rather, it was causing big problems in her brain.

"Maybe we can have the next one soon? Give me a day or two to practice?" Emily suggested, and Naomi caught a flash of hope on her face.

Naomi hesitated. She wanted Emily to keep going. She was obviously trying hard to learn. She didn't want to discourage that. At the same time, every time she was around the redhead in such close proximity, it wreaked havoc on her thoughts and her feelings. She couldn't risk that, could she? Certainly not at school. And not at Freddie's if anyone was home.

"Yeah, maybe. School's not really a great place, though," Naomi replied.

"Maybe Freddie's, then?" Emily asked, but Naomi could see her face already starting to fall as if she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, maybe," Naomi repeated. She told herself she'd think about it. Maybe she was simply overreacting, expecting Emily to be thinking things she wasn't. "I should-" Naomi indicated the door.

"Yeah, me too," Emily agreed.

"Right. So...I'll see you," Naomi muttered, inching towards the door.

"It's last period. We have English," Emily pointed out.

"Right," Naomi said. She'd forgotten that. She'd been hoping for a bit of reprieve from Emily. She felt like she needed some space to breathe properly.

"We could walk toge-"

"I have to get something from my locker," Naomi cut her off before panic could grip her completely.

"Okay. I'll see you there, then," Emily offered a small smile, but Naomi knew that the girl had taken her response for the brush off that it was.

"Bye," Naomi murmured as Emily slipped past her and left the room, the door swinging shut behind her. She wished that she didn't feel like such a horrible person every time she and Emily parted company.

She took a deep breath and started towards the door. _It'll be okay,_ she told herself. _One class with her, and then you're home._

She didn't really need anything from her locker, but to keep up appearances she headed that way anyway.

_Yeah, home to a madhouse._


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I know, I know, you all thought I gave up on this story. Guess what: Me too.**** Turns out I had this chapter in me at least. I'm sooooo sorry about the wait. I don't know if there's even still any interest in this story, but I figured I'd go ahead and post it. Also, this chapter is unbeta'd and finished at 2 a.m., so I can basically guarantee there'll be stupid errors. I hope you'll forgive them. Enjoy! **

**This chapter is dedicated to warriormari for being such an awesome reader and marathoning some of my**** stories of late. Gracias, amor. **

**Also, if some of you have yet to read ImagineAlex's "What a Beautiful Mess" and whyyesitscar's "Swan Song", then what's wrong with you? They're both beautiful, incredible, moving stories! Go read!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Skins or the characters.**

**.**

**.**

"Hello, love. Good day at school?" Naomi's mum greeted her as she entered the house, a small child who couldn't be older than three in tow behind her.

"It was rubbish," Naomi grumbled, taking in the child and trying to decide if it was someone who'd been in her house when she'd left this morning or not. "Who's that?"

"This is, um," her mum examined the child holding her hand, "Gracie. You know her. She's Ann's daughter."

"I might know her, if I knew who the hell Ann was," Naomi shot her mother a fake smile.

Her mum frowned and shook her head. "I'm sure you know her. Anyway, there's a surprise for you in the spare bedroom."

"Which one?"

"The empty one, of course, love," her mother rolled her eyes.

"Which is?" Naomi prompted. She could never keep track of which rooms her mum had decided to let 'friends' stay in that week.

"The one at the bottom of the stairs, of course."

"Is this a surprise I'm going to like? Or is it like the time you took me backstage at the circus and that creepy clown friend of yours scared the living daylights out of me?"

"Henry wasn't creepy! And as for if you'll like it, go see for yourself," her mum tutted.

Cautiously, Naomi wandered towards the door, not knowing quite what to expect. With her mother, it could be any number of things, and most of the possibilities didn't exactly qualify as "pleasant".

She opened the door hesitantly, pushing it open before peering in and stepping inside. "Hello?" she voiced warily. The surprise could always be a person. She got no response so looked around. She felt her heart thump in her chest when she laid her eyes on what stood against the far wall. Her stupid cow of a mum had actually done it. She'd gotten her a piano.

She approached the piano as if drawn to it. She ran her fingers over the polished wood of the lid before lifting it up. She grinned as the keys beneath were revealed, all apparently intact.

She pulled the piano bench out and took a seat, positioning her hands over the keys in excited anticipation. She pressed down on the first chord of the first song that occurred to her and cringed.

"The tuner is coming tomorrow," Naomi's mum said from behind her, and when Naomi turned her head, she saw her leaning against the doorway with a pleased smile on her face.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Naomi gushed as her mum's smile widened further. Naomi sobered a little. Her mum did kind of owe her for all the shite she made her live through on a daily basis. Just because it was nice of her to come through for once, it didn't mean she had to gush like that.

"My pleasure, love," her mum replied. "Right, well I've got to check on Gracie, and then I'm going to the shops. Need anything?"

Naomi looked at the piano and then back at her mum. "No, I'm good."

Her mum nodded and pushed herself off the doorframe.

As her mum's footsteps retreated down the hallway, she turned back to the piano, letting her fingers graze over the keys. It didn't seem real. It'd been so long. Now, finally, she had a piano again. She smiled. Maybe things weren't all that bad.

.

.

Emily jumped when her phone vibrated, startling her. She reached for where it sat on her bedside table and hit the button to view the message, not bothering to look at the name.

Her heart thudded hard in her chest when she saw the message and realised who it was from.

_My mum got me a piano.__ Can do lessons here once it's tuned._

It was an invitation. More importantly, it was an invitation to Naomi's house, into her world.

_Cool. That's great._ She typed back quickly, not even bothering to hide her excitement. This was big. Naomi couldn't run away if she was in her house. There wasn't anywhere for her to run to.

_It's getting tuned tomorrow, so lesson Wed? _Came Naomi's unexpected response a few seconds later.

Emily felt her heart pounding even harder in her chest. It felt almost like she was being asked on a date. She wasn't, obviously, she reminded herself. It was a piano lesson, plain and simple. A piano lesson the day after tomorrow. A piano lesson at Naomi's house.

_I'll be there. _ She replied.

She put down her phone and flopped onto her back, grinning excitedly as she looked up at the ceiling.

She knew she hadn't imagined the moment with Naomi earlier in the music room. They'd had something electric between them, even if just for a fleeting second. Maybe in Naomi's home, Naomi would feel more relaxed and she wouldn't run away scared before…Well, Emily didn't know before what, exactly, but she had hopes. It was impossible for her not to have hopes. She just felt so much for Naomi that sometimes it was overwhelming. The more time she spent with her the harder she fell. She refused to think that she could feel so deeply for someone who had absolutely no feelings for her in return. Naomi had to feel something too. Emily could almost see it in her eyes sometimes.

She only wished that those glimpses weren't always followed by heartache. She found herself having to brace herself from the moment she began spending time with Naomi for the moment when she would inevitable make her feeble excuses and bolt. Each time it was a little more painful, but she knew that she was getting better about not showing it on her face.

Maybe next time would be different, though. Maybe Wednesday Naomi would stick around, teach her, talk to her…Maybe more.

God, even if she just had one time where all they did was talk and hang out like friends, but then they parted on good terms, neither of them running, neither of them being bitchy or short with the other, it would make her week. Surely it wasn't too much to ask for.

_Especially if you practice and study,_ she told herself. She'd go to Freddie's after school tomorrow and practice, and, for now, she'd go back to her music theory.

She pulled out the book from where it lay tucked just under her bed and opened it, a massive smile still in place on her face. She would probably get her hopes dashed again, but she had a good feeling about Wednesday.

.

.

_Why did I invite her here?_ Naomi couldn't help wondering as she led Emily down the hall towards the room that held the piano. She was thankful that her mum had corralled everyone who was around that morning and dragged them off to protest the proposed plan to tear down an old wooden playground nearby and replace it with a new one made of plastic and metal (so that children would stop going home feeling like pincushions thanks to the splinters they'd picked up, Naomi knew, but she also knew how her mum felt about the benefits of a natural playground, so she hadn't bothered pointing that out). _This is going to end badly,_ she told herself, hating the way that her heart was pounding erratically in her chest just at Emily's presence in her home.

"This is a cool house," Emily commented, and when Naomi glanced over her shoulder she noted the way that Emily's eyes were searching around, landing on beads swinging in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, the pictures of her on the far bookshelf that she hadn't thought to take down, and other things that she wished Emily wouldn't notice.

"Thanks," she muttered, quickening her pace. "Piano's in here," she added, pushing open the door and ushering Emily in there.

She stood awkwardly by the door, closing it behind them just in case anyone came home in the hopes that it would deter them from interrupting. She watched Emily glance around the fairly barren room. There was a stray blanket in one corner, but people mostly put down sleeping bags or a futon mattress when they were passing through Naomi's house, so the room was devoid of all furnishings except for the piano and a mostly empty bookcase against one wall.

Naomi opened her mouth to explain that, then thought better of it. Emily was already finding out plenty about her just by being in her house, no need to offer up more information.

Emily made her way to the piano, set down her bag and pulled out the sheets of paper that Naomi recognised as the ones she'd written out for Emily. Emily pulled out the bench and sat down, then looked back at Naomi expectantly.

"I don't bite," Emily said with a small smile.

Naomi couldn't help thinking that there was a hidden meaning behind the words and she repressed a small shiver at the memory of just what Emily has done with her mouth. She couldn't think of things like drunken kisses when she was alone in a house, in a room with Emily and expected to teach her and spend time with her. "Right, well, show me what you've practiced," Naomi prompted, taking a businesslike tone as she strode across the room, attempting to appear confident.

She took a tentative seat at the edge of the bench next to Emily, keeping as much distance as possible between them.

If Emily noticed, she didn't say anything. Instead she positioned her hands on the keys and began to play.

Naomi had to admit that Emily was impressing her. She played the G scale up three octaves instead of two with hands together and only stumbled once despite the speed with which she played. Emily proceeded almost immediately into "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," pausing only to readjust her hands and shoot Naomi a small look.

Naomi ignored the way her stomach flipped at the shy smile on Emily's face and forced a smile back of her own.

When Emily finished the song flawlessly, Naomi felt pride well up inside her. "You practised yesterday."

Emily grinned. "Well, I was hoping that maybe you'd find it in your heart to teach me a slightly more interesting song if I did."

"Cheeky," Naomi replied, nudging Emily playfully with her shoulder. She felt butterflies flutter through her at the contact, but she pushed it away. Emily was being a model student and, for once, easy to hang out with. She couldn't ruin it by making things weird. Not when Emily was letting out a low chuckle, dark eyes dancing as they grazed over the keyboard. Not when Naomi found that she was actually enjoying herself.

"Well?" Emily prompted.

"How about we see how you do with the F scale, then we can learn another variation of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,' one with chords, and then I'll teach you another song?" Naomi offered.

"How about you teach me the F scale, play me a song, then teach me the variation and a new song?" Emily countered.

"You drive a hard bargain, Miss Fitch," Naomi teased, biting her lower lip as she grinned at Emily who smiled coyly back at her.

"Deal?" Emily asked, eyes bright.

Naomi rolled her eyes and tried to fight her smile. "Put your right thumb on the F above middle C."

Emily beamed at her for a second, clearly aware that she'd won, before doing as Naomi had instructed.

Naomi positioned her hand two octaves below it and began to play. "Now this scale is a little different because you go to your fourth finger on the B flat before putting your thumb under," Naomi explained as she played. "That means that to go into the second octave, you tuck your thumb under after your third finger." Naomi continued on up, her ring finger finally striking the note that Emily's thumb lingered on, her pinkie brushing against her hand. Her breath hitched, and she quickly made her way back down the scale with only a brief sidelong glance at Emily, who, fortunately, had been staring at the Naomi's fingers on the keys. "Now you try," she said.

Emily tried, but after the first three notes she swung her thumb under and struck B natural instead of B flat. "Shit," she mumbled as Naomi cringed. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Try again," Naomi replied with what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

Emily did, slower this time, and Naomi nodded happily when she remembered the B flat with her fourth finger.

Under Naomi's guidance, Emily played the F major scale a few more times with her right hand and then attempted it with her left hand.

"Not bad," Naomi said when she'd finished her second time through. "Shall we move on to variations on 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'?"

"Not so fast," Emily shook her head, glancing up at Naomi with mischief dancing in her eyes. "You promised me a song."

"I never _said_ yes," Naomi attempted to argue, but the truth was that her fingers were itching to play. She'd played for hours the night before after the piano tuner had left, dragging all her old books of sheet music into the room and plopping them in a pile beside the piano.

"Oh, no. You're so not getting out of this. Please? I love watching you play," Emily pleaded.

Naomi made the mistake of meeting her earnest gaze and let out a ragged breath. Naomi instantly worried about the hidden meaning behind Emily's words. Why did she have to say that? She had almost forgotten about all of the hidden hope that Emily seemed to have with regards to her, but that phrasing, those words, just brought it all up again. She swallowed hard and turned to the stack of books on the floor by the piano. She ruffled through the top few, attempting to come up with something to play and put her sudden tension from her mind. "What did you have in mind?"

"Play something...romantic. Something flow-y and pretty," Emily suggested her voice slightly dreamy sounding.

Naomi ignored the way that her heart began to race. "Okay. Flow-y. Right," she murmured, specifically avoiding thinking about the first criterion. She leaned over and ran her finger down the spine of a few books until she picked out the one that read Chopin on the spine. She couldn't help that he was her go to composer. His music was beautiful and emotional, and she simply loved to play him. She pulled out the book and flipped through the pages until it fell open to his _Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2_. She set the book on the music stand in front of Emily's handwritten music and scooted more so that she was centred in front of the keyboard, Emily scooting over to give her more room automatically.

She glanced nervously at Emily, already feeling her heart pounding harder as her nerves at having an audience began to act up. She took a deep breath, then another, trying to calm herself, but to no avail. She positioned her hands on the keys and closed her eyes. _Pretend you're all alone and you're just playing to play,_ she told herself, but her skin was acutely aware of Emily beside her. _It's just Emily,_ she tried telling herself, but her brain simply laughed back at her. She took a last deep breath, opened her eyes, focused on the familiar music before her, and started to play.

She heard Emily's breath catch a few lines in, but she forced herself to focus as her fingers glided across the keyboard. As she pressed her first wrong note, she cringed, and reminded herself not to rush. It was even harder for her not to do so with an audience, especially one paying such rapt attention to her hands.

The next page of music flowed better, but her right arm tingled every time it brushed against Emily. She hissed in when she screwed up again, glaring at the music as if it was its fault that her hands weren't cooperating. She kept going. She knew the song. She had to not over-think it.

She reached up quickly to turn the page and chanced a glance at Emily once her hand was safely back on the keys. Emily's eyes were wide, her mouth parted in a silent gasp as she watched Naomi's hands intently. The sight of it sent a shiver down Naomi's spine and her fingers stumbled again. "Shit," she muttered, having to go back a measure to find her place again.

Miraculously she made it through the rest of the song with only a few more slip ups, forcing herself not to look at Emily again until her fingers struck the final notes. When she finally did look up at Emily, Emily's eyes were trained on her face instead of her hands.

Naomi swallowed hard as she felt her eyes caught by Emily's gaze. Beautiful, big brown eyes held her own as an indescribable expression flashed across Emily's face.

"You're incredible," Emily murmured, her voice low and breathy.

Naomi's eyes flitted to Emily's lips as she spoke. God, they were so close. They were right there in front of her, looking soft and perfect and inviting. "I'm not that...I'm nothing special," she countered, feeling her cheeks flush as her heart continued to pound louder and louder in her chest.

Emily shook her head, but didn't break eye contact. "You're so wrong," she replied, voice barely above a whisper.

Naomi felt like she was having trouble breathing. Suddenly everything in the room felt like it was pressing in on her. As if sensing her discomfort, Emily turned away, back to the piano.

"'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' just seems so...lame in comparison to that," Emily sighed.

Naomi took a deep, shaky breath, trying to regain control of her senses. She needed to focus on the music. _You're supposed to be teaching a piano lesson_, she reminded herself. "I suppose I could find some other easy song for you to play. It'll be something hands together though. For now, at least," she said, turning back to the stack of books, glad for something else to pay attention to. She slid off of the piano bench and knelt beside the pile on the floor, looking for the book that she knew was there, old and tattered as it was. She dug it out from near the bottom of the stack and then had to dive back in for the back cover which had fallen off years ago. _Suzuki Piano School Volume 1_. It had been one of her first books of music ever. She opened it to the song right after variations on 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' (which was probably what had sparked her idea to start Emily on that to begin with). It was some folk song called 'The Honeybee' and it was short and simple, but the tune was nice enough and it was in cut time, so it would be a nice little test for Emily. "Try this," she said, setting the music on the stand.

"Nice stickers," Emily commented with a cheeky grin.

Naomi rolled her eyes and fought the blush that threatened to overtake her cheeks as she sat back down on the bench beside Emily. Her teacher had been quite a fan of giving her stickers when she did well on a song, and as a result there was a purple smiley face and glittery blue musical notes shining back at her from the page. "Shut up," Naomi murmured.

"It doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as what you were playing," Emily said after another moment of study.

"You have to start somewhere. We can always go back to 'Twinkle, Twinkle,'" she threatened.

"No, that's okay," Emily replied quickly, putting her hands on the keyboard.

"First things first, let's start with the right hand," Naomi instructed.

Emily nodded and pulled her left hand back to her lap. She frowned at the music and Naomi couldn't help but smile at the adorableness of it. Emily's right hand hovered above the keys, shifting back and forth as she was clearly trying to decide what note she was supposed to start on. Naomi watched as Emily's fingers danced up from the F above middle C, stopping at the A and then the C and E above it. She could see Emily mouthing the notes to herself as she did so.

"So I start on G?" she said, placing her middle finger on the key.

"Yes, but do you see the five written above the note?" Naomi coached.

Emily quickly changed her position so that her pinkie lingered on the note instead.

"Good, go ahead."

Emily pressed down and Naomi could tell that she was counting out two beats in her head before her ring finger pushed down the F beneath it.

"Did you look at the time signature?" Naomi asked, unable to stop a small smirk from spreading across her face.

"Oh. No. What...oh...I forget what that means," Emily mumbled, blushing softly.

"Cut time. That's 2/2 instead of 4/4 time," Naomi informed her.

"Oh, right," Emily wrinkled her nose. "So that should have only held for one beat?"

"Exactly," Naomi replied with a smile.

Emily started again, and made it through the first two bars just fine, but then she started to rush, and her fingers kept hitting two notes at once. Naomi allowed her to continue forward, but when she kept doing it, Naomi had to reach out and grab her hand. "Stop. You have to go slower," Naomi said, half laughing, half in pain as she squeezed Emily's fingers, pulling them off of the keys.

"Sorry," Emily mumbled, and she sounded so embarrassed that Naomi had to look down into her face.

_Fuck,_ she thought as she realised that she'd somehow ended up even closer to Emily that she'd been before and that Emily's big brown eyes were once again looking up into hers. In a flash all of the previous tension between them was back, and Naomi felt sheer electricity flowing up from where her hand was clasping Emily's.

She wanted to drop it, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to as she sat there, trapped by Emily's gaze. She took a deep breath, trying to get control of herself, but the scent of strawberry and Emily filled her nostrils and flooded her body with heat.

Naomi's eyes dropped to Emily's lips as her tongue darted out to lick them quickly. It was too much. The scent and the sight and the proximity...she couldn't stand it anymore. Before she realised what she was doing, she tugged on Emily's hand in hers, pulling her closer as she simultaneously leaned down and brought her lips to Emily's.

Emily's free hand cupped around the back of her neck in an instant keeping her in place and holding her close as her lips kissed fiercely back.

A small whimper escaped Naomi's mouth as Emily's swiped her tongue across her lips. Suddenly she was desperate to feel her closer, to taste her more fully. Her lips parted and their kiss grew more frantic as they pulled each other even closer. She rearranged her hand where it was still clasped with Emily's so that their fingers linked together as her free hand wrapped around Emily's back and pushed her closer.

Emily arched into the touch and Naomi could feel their chests pressing together as their mouths continued to demand more from each other.

The reality of what was happening hit her like a sack of rocks as Emily's hand slid down her neck and back over her shoulder until it was clutching at her back.

Naomi broke away, pushing herself up and off of the piano bench and then jumping back, putting distance between herself and Emily. Her heart was pounding deafeningly in her ears and her lips tingled as she brought her hand up to touch them. _Fuck._ She'd known something like this would happen. She'd dreaded it.

Emily sprang up and stood beside the piano, brown eyes pleading and hopeful all in one.

Naomi could see the expectations waiting there, and what was worse, she could feel her own body longing to fulfil those expectations. She swallowed hard, trying to gather her thoughts, but it was impossible when her brain was screaming at her that she'd just kissed Emily, and she'd done it sober and had enjoyed it. She wanted to do it again, even.

"Don't run," Emily whispered so quietly that Naomi almost missed it.

She felt something break inside her at Emily's plea, and before she knew what was even really happening she was surging forward, closing the distance between them once more.

"Fuck it," she murmured as she grabbed the back of Emily's neck and pulled her in for another searing kiss.

One of Emily's hands reached up, tangling in her hair, pulling her in closer.

Naomi stepped forward, her body yearning to be as close as possible to Emily's, but it forced Emily to take a step back.

Naomi couldn't process anything other than the way that Emily's lips slid so effortlessly against hers, the way that Emily's tongue tasted sweet and vaguely minty against her own, the way that Emily's hand slid frantically up her side and down her back as if trying to touch as much of her as possible all at once. She stepped forward again, registering a small thud as Emily's back hit the wall beside the piano.

Naomi pressed her body into Emily's. Her heart was racing, her stomach was tied in knots, and her whole body was tingling with electrified energy. Her lips were on fire from Emily's kisses and the heat was swiftly flooding through the rest of her body.

"I can't stand it," she mumbled against Emily's lips as everything overwhelmed her senses. "I can't."

"It's okay," Emily soothed desperately against her lips, tugging at her, pulling her into her.

Naomi didn't know if she believed that, but for right now she just couldn't care. She wanted this. She could feel it. She knew she couldn't think about it, so she simply acted. She slid one hand around Emily's side as the other cupped her cheek. She let her fingers drift up under the fabric of Emily's T-shirt, feeling the smooth skin beneath. God, she felt incredibly soft.

She pulled back and looked into Emily's face for just a second. Her cheeks were flushed prettily and her eyes were dark with lust. She'd never looked more beautiful. "Fuck," she whimpered, giving in and pressing her lips to Emily once more, pressing her further into the corner between the piano and the wall.

Emily's fingers clawed down her back, but she didn't care. She wanted to feel her everywhere. She wanted Emily to feel her, too. She traced her fingers higher on Emily's side, then back down, settling on her hip, relishing the shiver that started in Emily's body and finished in hers.

A loud bang and the sound of voices drifting in from the front of the house brought her back to her senses. She leapt away, leaving a rather breathless Emily panting heavily, leaning against the piano for support.

Naomi felt a familiar panic rising in her chest. What had she done? What was she doing? Fuck's sake, had she lost her mind?

She couldn't face what this might mean, what the fact that her whole body was practically humming in excitement and she'd never felt more alive in her life might indicate with regards to her feelings and her sexuality. She had to –

"Don't," Emily's husky voice cut her off. "Don't run, Naomi. I'll leave, but just fucking once, don't run."

Naomi closed her eyes and tried to calm her heavy breathing. She bit on her lower lip, sucking on it for a second before she realised that she could taste Emily there. "Shit," she said. She opened her eyes to find intense brown ones staring back at her.

She couldn't run. She had nowhere to run to. Half of her didn't even seem convinced that she wanted to run.

"You always run, but I'm not trying to – I don't even know what you think I'm trying to do, but I'm not. You felt that, Naomi. I know you did," Emily challenged her, stepping forward bravely, but keeping her voice low. "You felt that and you wanted that. I could feel it in your kiss."

Naomi flinched at the word. She'd kissed Emily, and Emily wasn't shying away from that fact. She wasn't backing down. She watched, eyes wide, as Emily took another step towards her, standing up a little straighter and looking more confident as she did so.

"You want me," she said, voice barely above a whisper.

"Nah, the wankers don't know what's good for them, do they?" a semi-familiar female voice called from just outside the room, making Naomi jump again. She listened as footsteps travelled past the door then away and began to stomp up the stairs.

"You don't have to say it, but I know I'm not the only one who felt that," Emily added, standing almost directly in front of her now. If she reached out, Naomi knew she'd be able to touch her.

Her whole body was shaking as Emily inched still closer, holding her gaze.

"I guess the lesson's over," Emily said.

Naomi swallowed nervously and nodded, slightly surprised by the sudden change in conversation. She wished desperately that the husky quality in Emily's voice would stop making her lips quiver in response.

"But now you've got a piano, so we can do another one soon," Emily continued.

Naomi internally shouted at herself to say no, to say that it was a bad idea and that Emily needed to find a new teacher, but her mouth opened and closed dumbly, no sound escaping. For a moment she thought that maybe Emily was going to kiss her again.

She honestly didn't know if she'd try to stop her if she did. "Emily –" she attempted to say, but Emily broke the spell and stepped away, turning to face the piano. She gathered the papers quickly, then turned back.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Naomi," she said, her eyes bright.

"Yeah. See you," Naomi heard her own voice agree shakily.

Emily began to move towards the door then paused. In a quick few steps she was kissing Naomi lightly on the cheek. "Thanks," she murmured in Naomi's ear, hot breath ghosting against her cheek.

Just as quickly, Emily turned on her heels and marched to the door, walking through it without looking back.

"Oh, hello, I didn't realise Naomi had company," Naomi heard her mum's voice travel in through the partially open door. "I'm Gina, her mum."

She was too preoccupied by everything that had just happened to even consider the frightening idea that Emily was not only meeting her mum, but also seeing the madness that was her household on a daily basis first hand.

"I'm a friend of Naomi's from school. Emily," Naomi heard Emily supply in return. "She's just been teaching me a bit of piano. You have a lovely home."

"Oh, thank you, love. Aren't you a dear," her mum replied. "Would you like to stay for tea? Naomi doesn't have friends around much."

Naomi felt her heart race a little faster and a blush grace her cheeks. She moved to the door, contemplating bursting in and protesting the invite. She caught Emily smiling sweetly at her mother and her breath hitched.

To her relief she heard Emily politely decline.

"I'd love to, but unfortunately my mum's expecting me. Thank you."

"Anytime. Nice to meet you Emily. Do come again soon," her mum invited.

Emily's eyes flitted down the hall towards her, and Naomi felt them bore into her own for a second. "I will," Emily's voice rang out like a promise echoing in her ears.

She leaned back heavily against the wall once she saw Emily turn to leave. She pushed the door closed with a click, hoping that her mum would decide to leave her alone for now. She needed some time to process. She needed some time to fucking think clearly for one fucking second.

She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. How had that just happened? How had she been stupid enough to let it happen?

One answer rang out in her mind, but she didn't want to believe it.

She took a deep ragged breath, trying to calm her racing heart and her still tingling body.

It couldn't be true. She wasn't ready for what that would mean.

She simply couldn't be falling for Emily.

.

.

Emily collapsed against the side of the building as soon as she'd rounded the corner. _Well, for once she didn't run_, she thought to herself, as she tried to calm her breathing. Her body was still on fire and her lips ached to be touching Naomi's once more.

It had taken all of her effort to leave and walk away. She knew that Naomi needed space though. She'd seen it in her eyes, seen the fear flashing there. She'd seen something else, too, though. Something that had given her hope. She'd seen desire. There had been pure lust in Naomi's eyes when she'd crossed the room and pinned her against the wall.

God, it had felt so good. Not just the taste of Naomi on her lips or the feel of her hands on her body, but feeling wanted as well. She felt an excited tickle settle low in her abdomen.

She wanted Naomi so badly. Sometimes she could pretend that she didn't. She'd gotten good at acting like all she wanted was friendship, but the truth was she wanted so much more. After today she was sure Naomi did too, whether or not she was ready to admit it to herself or anyone else. Naomi couldn't blame what had just happened on the drugs or on alcohol or on anything other than attraction.

Emily replayed the kiss in her head as her hand came up to absently brush against her lips. She could feel the impression of Naomi's lips lingering there, and her body ached for more of it.

She'd made the right decision in leaving when she did, though, she reminded herself. She knew she did. By leaving when she did, but not backing down, she kept Naomi from running and she hoped she'd made sure that she'd get to see Naomi again.

She really did love watching Naomi play piano and learning from her and she didn't want either of those things to disappear. She loved the feeling of accomplishment she got when she learned something new, when she got her fingers to cooperate and play things right. She loved it even more when she looked up in time to catch a proud little smile flit across Naomi's features.

She sighed heavily, trying to fight the anxiety that she could lose all of that and more that was gripping her chest. She wished she'd had the presence of mind to take the book of music that Naomi had pulled out with the new song that she'd been learning before...Oh, God...before they'd kissed.

Her lips began to tingle anew. It had been incredible, mind-blowing, even, and it had only been a snog. She could only imagine if it had gone further than that.

She took a deep breath and pushed off the wall. Katie'd probably start to wonder where she was if she stayed out too much longer, and she didn't feel like fighting with Katie today. For today, she decided, she'd simply bask in the fact that Naomi had kissed her and she'd wanted to. For today, that was good enough.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So I have to give another thanks to FitchSwitch for helping me get over my insecurities about the end of this chapter. You rock so hard, hun!**

**This chapter goes out to mugglingaround for knowing that Mozart wrote 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and giving me some awesome reviews recently. Thanks, dude!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Skins.**

**.**

**.**

Emily tugged out of her sister's grasp as they marched up the stairs to the college doors. "I need to wait for someone."

"Who?" Katie asked, putting a hand on her hip and giving her the look that Emily knew meant that she thought she was lying.

"A friend from class. German," Emily lied, choosing the one class that she didn't share with Katie. That had been the only difference in schedule she'd been allowed. Katie had chosen French, the language of romance, so Emily had gone with German just as a chance to get away from her.

Katie eyed her suspiciously, so Emily put on her best 'I'm innocent, stop judging me or I'll get mad' expression, and Katie sighed in exasperation.

"Whatever," Katie muttered before turning and striding away.

Emily waited by the steps, eyes searching the throngs of students for the one she actually wanted to see.

Plenty of blondes wandered past, but none the right shade.

Emily checked her watch. It was getting close to time for school to start. She'd never known Naomi to be late.

Emily searched the crowd again, but to no avail.

She stayed there until the stream of students pouring into the school lessened to a trickle, but still no sign of Naomi.

She couldn't have come down with something since yesterday afternoon, right? She was fine. Better than fine. She was...Emily's mind drifted back to how it had felt to have Naomi's soft lips on her own. She shook herself. No. Naomi was fine which only meant...Maybe she was running late.

Emily sighed and headed off to class. That had to be it.

.

.

Naomi groaned when her mum knocked on her door. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to go to school. She didn't want to see Emily.

She'd barely slept all night and her stomach was tied in anxious knots.

"Go away," she growled when her mum knocked again, then opened her door without waiting for a response.

"That's a lovely way to greet your mother," her mum replied, coming and taking a seat on the side of her bed.

Naomi moved over grumpily, facing away from her mum.

"Don't you have this silly little thing called school to get to?" her mum suggested after a minute.

"Since it's silly and little and all, I think I won't go today," Naomi replied.

She expected her mother to protest or to roll her eyes or to simply push her out of bed and tell her she expected her to be out the door in five minutes. Her mother did none of those things. Instead, she eyed her closely for a second, then nodded. "I could use your help around here today anyway. There's breakfast on the table when you're ready."

With that, her mother stood and left her room, closing the door behind her.

Naomi's jaw hung open in amazement. Maybe, just maybe, her mother wasn't all bad all the time.

.

.

Naomi did her best to avoid the room with the piano in it in the morning, but it was hard because her fingers were itching for her to play. Even her mother dragging her out to help with shopping couldn't entertain her. Her mind kept going back to Emily, to what it was like to be near her, to kiss her, to breathe her in, to have her body pressed against hers. She needed to properly think things out and the only way she was ever good at doing that was when she played, but going in that room meant that she couldn't escape Emily at all because Emily was now all she thought when she even walked past the door to the room.

"Sweetheart, you'd better get your practising in while you can. Luis is moving back in tomorrow. He's going to need the room," her mum told her when she caught her glancing towards the piano room for the umpteenth time that day.

Naomi turned sharply on her mother. "What?" she demanded.

"He needs a place to stay. He's just been off in Brazil helping street children, but he couldn't make his house payments while he was there."

"Well then why couldn't he have stayed in Brazil?" Naomi grumbled.

"Naomi –"

"No, Mum. You just gave me the piano and now you're basically telling me I have a day to play it until I lose it!"

"You won't lose it, Naomi. Let's not be melodramatic," her mum scolded. "You'll just have to arrange times with Luis when you can play it."

Naomi glared at her mum, and her mind began to race. As soon as Luis moved in it would become his room, and her access to her piano would get cut off. On top of that, it would cease being the room where she and Emily...where Emily had...Fuck. She didn't want to think about it, but it bothered her a remarkable amount the idea that somebody else would be in that room, tarnishing the memory of Emily's lips on hers, of Emily's hands travelling over the keys of the piano. "What if he moves into my room and I move into the piano room?"

Her mum raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Really, love? I thought you were awfully attached to your room."

"I'm attached to the things in my room, but I could move them right? I could even move the bed."

"It'd be a lot of work, but I don't see why not," her mum agreed.

Naomi grinned. "Great. I'll go start to pack."

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.

The lure of the piano proved too great for Naomi, and she'd only packed up two boxes full of books, one small box in which she'd shoved the majority of the contents of her desk, and she'd stripped her bed before she decided she needed to play.

She started off easy. She needed to think about things other than what she was playing, so she started with _Für Elise_, just like she had in the music room at school the day that Emily had found out she played...after they'd kissed at Pandora's party. As her fingers started to flow over the keys her mind wondered, tearing apart every look that Emily had given her in the past few weeks, every touch, every encounter thoroughly. She dissected every minute thing she'd felt since their first kiss years ago, and each of them led her closer and closer to something she wasn't sure she wanted to admit, even to herself.

She was holding the last chord of the song before she knew it, and she broke her train of thoughts to come up with another song to play. Chopin? No. Beethoven? No. Handel? No. Mozart? No. Daquin...

Her fingers began to work on _Le Coucou_ by Claude Daquin. The cuckoo. The other meaning of the word, however, resonated deeply with her at the moment. She certainly felt a little crazy with all of these thoughts and feelings running rampant in her brain. Her fingers raced lithely along the keys as Emily's face floated before her eyes. Bright red hair, soft brown eyes, button nose, cheeky smile, gorgeous, inviting lips...

Her fingers fumbled, and when she looked down at the keys, she can't remember where she was in the song. She slammed her hands down on the keys, a rare act of aggression against an instrument she loved brought on by frustration. Almost irrational frustration. She just lost her place in the song, but it wasn't just that. It was everything. Emily, the piano, the lessons, the kissing. She still didn't know what the hell to do about any of it. She slammed her hands down again, discordant chords making her cringe.

"You know, pianos don't just drop out of the sky every day, Naomi," her mum's voice broke into her inner turmoil and she turned to find her mum leaning in the doorway, arms crossed across her chest. "Neither do pretty little redheads who seem to care a lot for you," her mum added pointedly, an annoyingly knowing smile on her face. "You should be nice to them while you have them."

Naomi frowned and opened her mouth to retort, but her mother shot her another look, and then turned and traipsed away, humming to herself. Naomi sighed. She hated when her mother had a point. It was a fucking good point, she knew, too. Otherwise she wouldn't feel quite so guilty about having not gone to school today simply to avoid Emily.

She turned around and looked at the piano, her eyes looking to the music stand for the first time since she'd sat down, finding the _Suzuki Piano School Volume 1_ book still sitting there from the lesson yesterday. She smiled to herself as she remembered Emily's fingers stumbling through 'The Honeybee', and when she realised what she was doing, she knew she needed to talk to her. She picked up the music book and flipped through it. She'd need to apologise. She'd need...an excuse.

She stood up quickly and rushed out of the room, grabbing her bag on the way and shoving the book inside.

"I thought you were packing!" her mother called after her as she reached the front door.

"Yeah! I am! I've gotta do something. I'll be back!" she shouted back, already grabbing her bike off the porch before she closed the front door behind her.

.

.

By lunch time Emily had given up. She was being avoided. In fact, she was being avoided to such great lengths that Naomi hadn't even come to school. She should have known that Naomi would freak out, that she'd run, again, even if in this case 'running' simply meant 'hiding at home'.

She contemplated texting her. First with an innocent, 'how are you?' but as the day wore on, the messages she contemplated grew more bitter. She actually typed out the words 'you're just a fucking coward, aren't you, Naomi?' but she couldn't send it.

The last classes of the day seemed to drag on forever, the seconds ticking by tortuously slowly. She found herself tapping out a rhythm on her desk with her fingers, then stopped abruptly when she realised she was playing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' on an imaginary piano. She couldn't think about playing the piano. Not when it only reminded her of Naomi who had made it perfectly clear by her absence today that she didn't want to be near Emily. Well, fine, then. She'd leave her alone.

She shoved her notebook angrily into her bag and marched out of the classroom without bothering to wait for her protesting sister. She just wanted this day over with.

She stopped at her locker only briefly, not really paying attention to what she grabbed out of it before slamming it closed. She had one more class, but she just couldn't be bothered. Not right now. Katie could give her notes for once. If Naomi Campbell was too much of a coward to even fucking have the decency to talk to her about this, to address anything she might be feeling, then fuck her. She couldn't just walk all over Emily like she was nothing. She couldn't just kiss her and pretend it didn't happen without expecting her to react.

Emily froze halfway down the steps to the school when she looked up into big blue eyes, opened wide.

"Hey," Naomi smiled nervously at her.

Emily felt her anger start to melt, but then she remembered that she hadn't so much as gotten a text all day. Naomi had run. Again. What the fuck did she think she was doing here? "Nice to see you finally decided to show up. You're a little late though. Missed almost all your classes," Emily said, her voice hard as she started walking again, pushing past Naomi and ignoring the way that her skin burned with excitement at the brief contact.

"I know. I don't care. I came to see you," Naomi replied, catching Emily's wrist.

Emily swallowed hard before she turned to face Naomi, her skin on fire at her touch. She felt the anger melting away further. She felt it being replaced by surprise. She hadn't expected Naomi to say that. At this point, she hadn't dared hope that she'd hear Naomi say something like that. "Oh? What for?" she tried to keep her tone aloof, disinterested.

Naomi produced the music book she'd had Emily start to play from at her house the day before out of her bag. "Thought you might need this to practice."

Emily's brows furrowed as she studied Naomi's face, looking for deception, searching for a sign of...well...anything, really. She watched as Naomi bit her lower lip, and looked shyly back at her through her long lashes.

Naomi held the book a little lower when Emily didn't take it immediately, and Emily was aware of her swallowing hard and taking a deep breath as she released Emily's wrist. "Look, I know I – I did some thinking this morning, and...I'm moving my room."

Emily's brows furrowed more as she tried to follow the sudden jump in conversation.

"To the piano room," Naomi clarified a moment later. "This old friend of my mum's is moving back in with us and he was going to take the piano room and I wouldn't have been able to give you lessons as easily anymore if that happened, and I thought – " Naomi took another deep breath.

Emily felt a smile start to creep across her lips. Naomi was pretty cute when she rambled. And Naomi had been thinking about her. All of the emotions that she'd let bitterness start to push away came flooding back, led first and foremost by hope. Still, she didn't want to let Naomi off too easily (especially when it seemed she would ramble on if Emily let her), so she cocked an eyebrow expectantly and crossed her arms.

"Well, and then my mum was talking about being nice to pianos, because I had to stop moving to play because sometimes my fingers just itch to play, and I knew she was really talking – I just realised I didn't want to stop giving you lessons."

"So you want to keep giving me lessons," Emily said, slowly, almost afraid she'd scare Naomi off if she talked too quickly.

Naomi nodded, biting her lower lip again. Emily reached out for the music book expectantly and Naomi fumbled for a second then handed it over.

Emily opened it and started to flip through the pages just to give her something to look at besides the blue of Naomi's eyes. "Lessons in what is now going to be your bedroom," Emily suggested, feeling the hope pounding away inside her chest with every beat of her heart.

Naomi cleared her throat, but even still when she spoke there was a slight squeak to her voice. "Umm, yes."

Emily's smile grew. Naomi wanted to spend more time with her. Time alone. In her bedroom. Naomi wanted her back. She looked up to meet Naomi's gaze once more and closed the music book. "Does this mean you're done running?" No point in dancing around the subject.

Naomi flinched, and Emily knew that she'd been hoping that Emily hadn't known that that was precisely what she'd done today by not showing up to school. "Emily, I just – I want...I..."

"Like kissing me?" Emily suggested, holding Naomi's gaze.

She caught the way that Naomi's chest ceased to rise as she held her breath for a second before releasing it slowly. "It's not all that unpleasant."

Emily rolled her eyes and shoved Naomi playfully. "Not that unpleasant, huh?"

Naomi grinned at her, then it was almost as if she caught herself and toned down her smile. "So, anyway, I'm packing, and Louis moves in tomorrow, and I have a lot of stuff, and I was wondering...Would you like to help me move? I could give you another lesson once we're done."

Emily's jaw dropped. "Are you actually asking me to hang out with you?"

Naomi pursed her lips then nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I am." She shot Emily a hopeful smile that made Emily's heart palpitate.

"I get a lesson out of it?" Emily asked, as if mulling the prospect of an afternoon spent with Naomi over, as if she'd actually say no.

"I never did get to teach you that song yesterday," Naomi replied with a shrug.

"Well, I suppose so, then." Emily couldn't keep the cheeky smile from her face as she said it.

The smile that Naomi answered with made Emily's breath hitch. "You suppose?" It was Naomi's turn to nudge her playfully, and Emily felt tingles radiate out from the spot on her side that Naomi's arm touched.

"As long as I get a lesson."

"Promise," Naomi said, taking her hand and leading her to where her bike was waiting, and Emily couldn't help feeling like Naomi was promising so much more than a lesson.


End file.
